Short-tailed blue
Everes argiades
The short-tailed blue is a tiny butterfly. The male is violet on top, the female dark grey-blue. On each back wing it has a tiny tail, black with a white tip.
Lives in
From Spain across Europe and Asia to Japan, and in India, in flowery meadows and forest edges
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterflies drink nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat clover, bird's-foot trefoil, alfalfa and other pea-family plants.
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)
Short-tailed blue about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its tiny tails are black with white tips.
2
Its caterpillar is light green with a dark stripe down its back.
3
It lives from the seaside up to about 1,500 metres in the mountains.
4
Butterflies from very dry places in Myanmar are smaller and paler than the others.
you asked
Most asked questions about Short-tailed blue
?Why is it called the short-tailed blue?
Because it is a blue butterfly with a very short tail on each back wing.
?What does the short-tailed blue eat?
The caterpillars eat clover, bird's-foot trefoil and other pea-family plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Everes argiades
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Tailed Cupid
Where the facts come from
- Short-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 KENPEI. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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