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Sticker of Provençal short-tailed blue
Bug card No. 3423 of 4,939

Provençal short-tailed blue

Everes alcetas
Name means: “named after Alcestis, a princess in old Greek stories”
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The Provençal short-tailed blue is a small butterfly. The boys are blue-purple on top and the girls are brown. Near the back corner of each hind wing it has a thin, very short tail.

Lives in
Southern and central Europe, Turkey, southern Siberia and Kazakhstan, in flowery meadows
Wingspan
2.6 to 3.2 cm (1 to 1.3 in)
Top speed
about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Grown-ups visit flowers for nectar. Its caterpillars eat the leaves and flowers of clover, vetch and other pea-family plants.
For real!Photo of Provençal short-tailed blue
Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Provençal short-tailed blue wings about 3.2 cm tip to tip (1.3 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
wings as wide as 5 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 34 seconds

How big is Provençal short-tailed blue compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillars live side by side with ants.

2

The underside of its wings is pale blue-grey with small black dots ringed in blue.

3

In warm places it can have three families in one year.

4

It lives in flowery meadows, damp bushy places and forest clearings, up to 1200 metres high.

you asked

Most asked questions about Provençal short-tailed blue

?Where does the Provençal short-tailed blue live?

In southern and central Europe, Turkey, southern Siberia and northern Kazakhstan.

?How can you tell it from the short-tailed blue?

The short-tailed blue always has two orange spots under its back wing. The Provençal one usually has none.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Everes alcetas
Named by
Hoffmannsegg, 1804
Group
Butterflies
Family
Lycaenidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Cupido alcetas (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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