À toutes fins utiles, cela ressemble à un papillon bleu (comme dans la sous-famille Polyommatinae)… il est très, très bleu après tout. Mais des hypothèses basées sur la couleur vous conduiraient sur la mauvaise voie; car il s'avère que ce papillon est en fait une espèce de cuivre. Il y a une différence subtile dans la forme des ailes et probablement la nervation, but when I first saw these butterflies I assumed they were a sub-species of Plebejus icarioides (qui were aussi flying at this location on the Kaibab Plateau). But then I began seeing female butterflies (au-dessous) interacting with these blues and then it dawned on me – blue copper – Lycaena heteronea austin (Lycaenidae: Lycaeninae)!
This subspecies was originally described in 1998 by the late, génial George T. Austin as L. heteronea rutila. Given however that rutila more or less = rutilus, it was later determined rutila was actually unavailable and the subspecies name was changed to austin in honor of George.
male Lycaena heteroena austin (Lycaenidae)
female Lycaena heteroena austin
What a beauftiful picture !
I like the picture so bad
Do you have any picture similar with that ?
Impressive. Certainly a trick to trip up beginners!