Long-tailed blue
The long-tailed blue is a small butterfly with a thin little tail on each back wing. The boys are shiny violet blue on top, while the girls are mostly brown with just a bit of blue. Underneath, its wings are light brown with wavy white lines.
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Fun facts
Next to each tail there are two small black eye spots with a bit of orange.
It is quite big for a blue butterfly. Most of its cousins are smaller.
It found its own way to New Zealand. People first saw it there in 1965.
It can live high up in the mountains, in meadows up to 2,700 metres above the sea.
It also lives on faraway islands like Hawaii and the Maldives.
Most asked questions about Long-tailed blue
?What does the long-tailed blue eat?
The butterfly drinks flower nectar. Its caterpillars eat pea plants.
?How big is a long-tailed blue?
Its wings measure about 2.5 to 3.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
?Why is it called the pea blue?
Because its caterpillars usually grow up on pea plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lampides boeticus
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1767
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Pea blue
Where the facts come from
- Lampides boeticus (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 Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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.
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