Eastern Tailed-blue

Here's a pretty good shot of an Eastern Tailed-blue, though you could be forgiven for thinking they're more of a violet-blue in color. Although you can quibble with the shade of blue, the blueness that's there says that this is a male; the females tend to look gray instead.

In flight you'll see this blue coloring flashing since the underwing is mostly a slightly speckled white. (The underwing also has a little orange spot, though I doubt you'll pick that up in flight. You can see what the underwings are like in the picture here.)

They can be confused with the Spring/Summer Azures. The best ways to distinguish the Eastern Tailed-blue from them are:

  1. The azures don't have the little "tails" on their rear wings.
  2. When their wings are up, the azures shouldn't show the little orange markings of an ETB.
(Distinguishing the Spring Azure from the Summer Azure is something I can only do based on the season.)

Although neat looking, these are pretty small butterflies. If you barely notice those little white butterflies fluttering around (Cabbage Whites), these guys are only about half that size.

July 6, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 221313898, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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