Agriades orbitulus

Agriades orbitulus, the alpine argus, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is a high altitude species found in the Alps (ranging from the French Alps to Slovenia and Austria), the mountains of Norway and Sweden, the Urals, the Himalayas and across central Asia.

Mounted
Underside

Agriades orbitulus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Agriades
Species:
A. orbitulus
Binomial name
Agriades orbitulus
(Prunner, 1798)
Synonyms
  • Papilio orbitulus de Prunner, 1798
  • Albulina orbitulus
  • Plebejus orbitulus
  • Plebeius orbitulus
  • Papilio pheretes Hübner, 1805
  • Albulina pheretes

Description

The wingspan is 25–30 mm. The male upperside varies from sky blue to a greyish or steely blue, and is unmarked apart from the narrow black borders and white fringes. The female is brown, often with a slight blue dust suffusion at the wing bases. The fore-wings end in a very pointed apex. Both sexes are clearly assigned by conspicuous white spots on the otherwise pale greyish brown or beige wing underside. The spots under the hind-wing are pure white and lack black centres. The butterfly flies from June to August depending on the location.

Ecology

The larvae feed on Astragalus alpinus.

Subspecies

Subspecies include[1]:

  • A. o. orbitulus (Prunner, 1798)
  • A. o. luxurians (Forster, 1940)
  • A. o. lobbichleri (Forster, 1961)
  • A. o. tatsienluica (Oberthür, 1910)
  • A. o. major (Evans, 1915)
  • A. o. pheretimus (Staudinger, 1892)
  • A. o. sajana (Rühl, 1895)
  • A. o. tyrone (Forster, 1940)
  • A. o. shanxiensis Murayama, 1983
  • A. o. tibetana (D'Abrera, 1993)
  • A. o. qinlingensis (Wang, 1998)
  • A. o. demulaensis (Huang, 2001)
  • A. o. dongdalaensis (Huang, 2001)
  • A. o. litangensis (Huang, 2001)
  • A. o. jugnei (Churkin, 2004)

References
  1. Savela, Markku. "Agriades orbitulus". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved August 9, 2019.


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