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Male or Female Long-Tailed Blue?
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 2:43 pm
by RolandRamsdale
Can anyone tell me whether this roosting Long-tailed Blue is a male or a female?
I found it at Butts Meadow TQ 5836 0205 in Eastbourne, Sussex on 8/10/2023. It was on the seedheads of Hemp Agrimony.
I assume from the condition of the fringes and the intact tails that it is from an egg laid in this country.
Re: Male or Female Long-Tailed Blue?
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 9:42 pm
by Jack Harrison
Roland:
I assume from the condition of the fringes and the intact tails that it is from an egg laid in this country.
See this comment I made recently:
viewtopic.php?t=11844
The fine condition of your Long-tailed Blue RR is gives no indication as to its origin.
Jack
Re: Male or Female Long-Tailed Blue?
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:01 pm
by bugboy
Nothing is migrating north now so this will have been a homegrown individual. There's been plenty of sightings in the Eastbourne area. As to it's sex, you can't tell from the underside alone. In some butterflies (lycenids for example) the females have a slightly more rounded outer edge to the forewing, so using that I would suggest yours may be a female, but this only moves the likelihood from 50/50 to perhaps 70/30 at a stretch.