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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Butterflies and Skippers (Papilionoidea) » Blues, Coppers, Hairstreaks, Harvesters (Lycaenidae) » Blues (Polyommatinae) » Plebejus » Greenish Blue - Hodges#4376 (Plebejus saepiolus)
Photo#2009335
Unknown copper? - Plebejus saepiolus
Copyright © 2021 davedlj

Unknown copper? - Plebejus saepiolus
Grass Lake, Highway 89, El Dorado County, California, USA
July 7, 2021
Size: 1/2 -2/3 inch
I've not determined what this small butterfly is. It has a tan color tone on both wings on the underside of the wings with bold black spots on both the lower and upper underwing. It has several orangish spots along the lower end of the margins of the lower underwing. I think it should be a copper but, maybe it's a blue but having checked all the species in both groups in Glassberg's Field Guide of the West, I have come up empty.
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Contributed by davedlj on 24 July, 2021 - 10:46pm
Last updated 25 July, 2021 - 5:13pm

Moved
Moved from Blues.
… Roy Cohutta Brown, 25 July, 2021 - 5:13pm login or register to post comments

Why not Greenish Blue?
Dave,
This looks like Greenish Blue.
Roy
… Roy Cohutta Brown, 25 July, 2021 - 1:41pm login or register to post comments

 
Greenish Blue?
Glassberg says: Females vary from bluish-gray to brown with orange highlights to dark brown. I've not seen Greenish Blue females with this tannish-brown color tones but apparently they do exist according to Glassberg. The black marking are bold like in Greenish Blue. Have you eliminated female Boisduval's Blue as a possibility as the markings are also bold with a similar pattern? And the females vary from blue to brown.
… davedlj, 25 July, 2021 - 2:14pm login or register to post comments

 
Boisduval's v. Greenish
On Boisduval's, the black FW spots are more prominent than the black spots on the HW. On your specimen, the spots appear to be of near equal prominence.

Also, your specimen has some orange on the HW.

EDIT: Also, Glassberg says the undersides of females are USUALLY tan (in Greenish Blue).
… Roy Cohutta Brown, 25 July, 2021 - 4:25pm login or register to post comments

 
Boisduval's versus Greenish
I agree that my black spots on the underwings appear to be equally bold, as in Greenish, and if Glassberg says that the underwings of females are usually tan than it appears that my image is a female Greenish Blue and not a copper as I was thinking it should be.
… davedlj, 25 July, 2021 - 4:35pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… Roy Cohutta Brown, 25 July, 2021 - 1:39pm login or register to post comments

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