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Neolysandra coelestina

Pontic Blue

Field Notes

Mt Chelmos, Greece, June 2002

Male feeding on the Vetch Vicia dalmatica, the larval food plant.

Mt Chelmos, Greece, June 2002

My best photo of the underside of a male - the basal area is blue.

Mt Chelmos, Greece, June 2002

Mt Chelmos, Greece, June 2002

Older male found about 300m altitude below the other photographs.

Mt Chelmos, Greece, June 2002

My only photograph of a female. Underside basal
scaling is green rather than blue of male.

Mt Chelmos, Greece, June 2002

We found this in mid June where it was already mostly finished except near the upper end of its altitudinal range - 1600m. It has an extremely limited European range being found only on and around Mt Chelmos in S Greece. It didn't appear to be particularly uncommon or localised and we found some very worn individuals lower down on meadows amongst the trees to the wide open grassy slopes above the tree line. Its larval food plant forms large purple patches across the mountainside. These patches can be seen at large distances in the higher open slopes although the butterfly isn't found at every patch.

In the male, the upperside blue is a rich deep blue and the coloured underside basal area is iridescent blue. In the female the upperside is brown and the underside basal area is iridescent green. The male is reminiscent of the Mazarine Blue, Cyaniris semiargus but on Mt Chelmos it is the subspecies helena that flies with coelestina and that is much small than the typical semiargus and has very distinctive orange markings on the underside of the hindwing.

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