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When in Spain, I found this down by the beach about 15 miles east of Malaga. It looks like a female Holly Blue, but it seemed rather smaller than the Holly Blues we get in the garden in Fareham, more like the size of a Small Blue. I know that many members know about these things and love a chance to help. Any ideas?

Hi Henry - looks like a make Silvery Argus (Aricia nicias). Roger or Guy should be able to confirm - some of Roger's photos:

http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/html ... s_14Jul14_

Cheers,

- Pete

Nicias is a high mountain butterfly of the Alps and Pyrenees, so I would be very surprised to find it near Málaga. If it was a really tiny butterfly I would go for Zizeeria knysna, the African grass blue. Normally, this lacks the bar at the end of the cell but this is sometimes present; the borders are quite consistent with knysna. The wing shape and tint don't look quite right but these are easily distorted in a single photo.

If you have any underside photos at all - even bad ones - it would be easy to identify this butterfly...

Guy

I haven't got any pictures of the underside, but I did take a picture of another couple of butterflies which might have been related and I also don't know.

Hi Henry. That's a female African graas blue, confirming the previous ID.

Guy

Thanks to you all for your contributions