Eastern tailed-blue
The eastern tailed-blue is a tiny blue butterfly with a thin little tail on each back wing. The males are bright blue on top, and the females are paler blue, brown or dark grey. Near the tail it has small orange and black spots.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Eastern tailed-blue compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its caterpillars make a sweet liquid that ants love. In return, the ants protect the caterpillars from enemies.
The tiny tail on its back wings is how you can tell it apart from other little blue butterflies.
Some of them are purple or pink.
People accidentally brought it to parts of California, Oregon and Washington, and it now lives there too.
Most asked questions about Eastern tailed-blue
?How big is the eastern tailed-blue?
With open wings it is only about 2 to 3 cm across.
?What do eastern tailed-blue caterpillars eat?
Seeds and flowers of clover, vetch and other plants of the pea family.
?Where can I see an eastern tailed-blue?
In sunny open places like fields and gardens in eastern North America.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cupido comyntas
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Eastern tailed blue
Where the facts come from
- Eastern tailed-blue (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Monarch butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Blue morpho
Old World swallowtail
Small white
Eastern tiger swallowtail
Ailanthus silkmoth
Mullein moth
Labyrinth spider
Peach-potato aphid
Four-spot orb-weaver
Rusty millipede