Agriades pyrenaicus, the Gavarnie blue, is a Palearctic butterfly of the family Lycaenidae.[1] It is found in the Asturias mountains of north-western Spain, the Pyrenees, the southern Balkan Peninsula, Turkey, the Caucasus and Armenia.[2] The habitat consists of alpine grassy rocky meadows where it is found at altitudes ranging from 1,500 to 2,200 meters.[3]

Gavarnie blue
A. p. asturiensis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Agriades
Species:
A. pyrenaicus
Binomial name
Agriades pyrenaicus
(Boisduval, 1840)
Synonyms
  • Lycaena orbitulus pyrenaica Boisduval, 1840
  • Lycaena pyrenaica asturiensis Oberthür, 1910
  • Agriades ergane Higgins, 1981
  • Lycaena dardanus Freyer, 1844
  • Lycaena araraticus Gerhard, 1853
  • Lycaena rebeli Tuleschkow, 1932
  • Lycaena latedisjuncta Alberti, 1973
  • Agriades hesselbarthi Nekrutenko, 1974
  • Agriades erzurumensis Eckweiler & Hesselbarth, 1978
  • Agriades kudrnai Koçak, 1980

The wingspan is 22–28 mm.[4] The wings are grey suffused with blue and the wings are bordered by a white line. On the upperside a grey discal spot centers each wing, on the underside the forewings are decorated with black dots circled in white and the hindwings have a sub-marginal line of white dots some centered yellow.

The larvae feed on Androsace species.

Subspecies edit

  • A. p. pyrenaicus (central Pyrenees)
  • A. p. asturiensis (Oberthür, 1910) (Picos de Europa)
  • A. p. dardanus (Freyer, 1844) - Balkan blue (Balkans, Asia Minor, Caucasus, Armenia)[5] smaller than pyrenaicus, and the pale spots of the hindwing beneath with more distinct black centres.[6]
  • A. p. ergane (Higgins, 1981) (Ukraine, Russia)

References edit

  1. ^ "Agriades Hübner, [1819]" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms
  2. ^ Agriades dardanus at euroButterflies
  3. ^ Agriades pyrenaicus at euroButterflies
  4. ^ asturnatura
  5. ^ IUCN Redlist Plebejus dardanus
  6. ^ Adalbert Seitz in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.