![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/EasternTailedBlueMaleonGoldenrodPanoramaonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat Blue Butterflies Still Sun in September?<\/h2>\n
I had to wait till I was home to try to figure out what kind of butterfly it was. Some kinds of blue butterflies are only seen in the spring in southern Ontario. Others seem to abound in the early summer.<\/p>\n
This one was seen on September 4 and yet it was very crisp and fresh. In fact, it had very tiny \u201ctails\u201d on its hind wings which further reading agreed are fragile and often break off as the butterfly ages.<\/p>\n
That seemed to rule out one of the Spring Azures. There are also Summer Azures, though and technically September is still summer.<\/p>\n
Photos of a Butterfly from Both Above and Below Help Aid Identification<\/h2>\n
I flipped through the photos in Kaufman\u2019s Field Guide to Butterflies of North America.
\nThe underside of my blue beauty was very helpful. As you can see, it had 2 little orange crescents above the black dots on its hind wings. That turned out to be a key feature.<\/p>\n
The \u201ctails\u201d themselves on the hind wings gave another useful clue. According to the guide, the Eastern Tailed Blue is the only one sporting these tiny tufts in eastern Canada.<\/p>\n And this type of butterfly is sexually dimorphic. That just means the females and males don\u2019t look alike. My amazingly blue butterfly was a male.<\/p>\n The only concern I has was in the guide, the Eastern Tailed Blue is shown as having orange spots on top of the hind wings, as well as on the underside.\u00a0 To quote: \u201cBoth [male and female] have one or two orange spots near tail above.\u201d<\/p>\n Mine did not have any obvious orange marks on the upper side.<\/p>\n Wandering around the internet, though, I found the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility website of the Government of Canada<\/strong><\/a> has a slightly different interpretation. it says there are \u201ctwo or three black spots, often orange-capped, near the tail.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOften\u201d to me doesn\u2019t equal \u201calways\u201d so I found that reassuring. And then I went through each of my photos again, squinting closely at the scales nearest the \u201ctails.\u201d I did find on one or two shots there was a small amount of orange visible.<\/p>\n So I feel comfortable concluding this should be a male Eastern Tailed Blue.<\/p>\n That brought me back to the freshness of this butterfly and the late-ish date. Some butterflies, like Mourning Cloaks, over-winter as adults. They lay their eggs in early spring. Others, like Monarchs, migrate south laying eggs the following spring.<\/p>\n Was this male of mine likely to over-winter or migrate?<\/p>\n Bugguide.net<\/strong><\/a> says that it\u2019s unlikely. Usually these butterflies over-winter as mature larvae,\u00a0\u00a0 \u201coften inside a seedpod.\u201d<\/p>\n So I hope this fellow helps create some caterpillars soon. They may need these last few precious weeks of summer and a summery-early autumn to mature.<\/p>\n Fortunately, they are not picky eaters. In fact, among the many native and alien plants they like to munch on are White and Red Clovers and Cow Vetch<\/strong><\/a>. There\u2019s no shortage of those in southern Ontario.<\/p>\n I hope that means I\u2019ll find some of his descendants perched on the goldenrod next September!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Mystery of the Missing Orange Spots on the Wing Tops<\/h2>\n
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\nCertainly the dozens of photos I looked at seemed to be otherwise identical to my butterfly.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nDo Eastern Tailed Blues Over-winter As Adults?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat Do Eastern Tailed Blue Caterpillars Eat?<\/h2>\n