Small Blue

Small blue males are dark brown with a scattering of bright blue scales that speckle their wings. Females lack this blue speckling. Both males and females exhibit the characteristic silver underside with black spots. The male has a bluish tint at the base of its wings similar to the upper side. Their wingspan can fall anywhere from 16-27mm, but males tend to be the smaller sex. Small blues are often confused with the female Osiris Blue, whose coloring is similar to that of the male small blue.

C. minimus is found in Europe, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Tian-Shan, western Siberia, central Siberia, southern Siberia, the Russian Far East, Amur, Mongolia, Magadan and Kamchatka.

UK and Ireland. The small blue is the smallest butterfly species found in the United Kingdom. It has a very patchy distribution across the UK, with strongholds in the chalk and limestone grasslands of southern England, such as the Cotswolds and Salisbury Plain. Elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland, it is often found in coastal habitats, with widely scattered colonies in northern England and the far north of Scotland. It is a Priority Species for conservation in Northern Ireland and under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Recorded larval food plants are Oxytropis campestris, Astragalus alpinus, Lotus corniculatus, Anthyllis vulneraria, Melilotus, Coronilla, Medicago, Anthyllis vulneraria, Astragalus glycyphyllos and Astragalus cicer, which all are legumes. In the UK, small blues lay their eggs, live, and feed exclusively on the kidney vetch. While females obtain all of their nutrients from plants, males will extract salts and minerals from carrion, dung, and mud puddles.