Blue-spot hairstreak
Satyrium spini
The blue-spot hairstreak is a small brown butterfly with short tails on its back wings. Underneath, its wings are pale beige with a thin white line and one big blue spot. That blue spot gives it its name.
Lives in
Southern and central Europe and western Asia, in shrubby meadows and clearings
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other butterflies, the adult drinks nectar. Its caterpillars eat buckthorn, blackthorn, rowan and apple leaves.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Blue-spot hairstreak about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Females often have brownish orange spots on the edges of their back wings.
2
It lives from low valleys up to about 2000 metres high in the mountains.
3
It does not live in Britain, Scandinavia or Estonia.
4
It has only one generation a year and flies from late May to early August.
you asked
Most asked questions about Blue-spot hairstreak
?Does the blue-spot hairstreak live in Estonia?
No. It lives further south, in southern and central Europe.
?What does its caterpillar eat?
Leaves of buckthorn, blackthorn, rowan and apple.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Satyrium spini
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Satyrium spini (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 Ettore Balocchi. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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