Summer azure
Celastrina neglecta
The summer azure is a small pale blue butterfly, dusted with white. Some females are almost all white with just a little blue. Underneath, its wings are chalky white with tiny grey dots.
Lives in
The eastern and central United States and southern Canada
Wingspan
2.3 to 2.9 cm (0.91 to 1.1 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Grown-ups drink nectar from yarrow, goldenrod, wild oregano and many other flowers. The caterpillars eat dogwood, meadowsweet and New Jersey tea.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 5 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 38 seconds
How big is Summer azure compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Summer azure about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Females have a wide dark grey band along the edge of the front wing.
2
It flies from the middle of June until early October.
3
Scientists have argued for many years about whether it is its own species.
you asked
Most asked questions about Summer azure
?What does the summer azure eat?
Adults drink nectar from many flowers. The caterpillars eat leaves of dogwood and meadowsweet.
?How big is the summer azure?
Its wings are only about 2 to 3 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Celastrina neglecta
- Named by
- Edwards, 1862
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Celastrina neglecta (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 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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