Azure Versus Eastern Tailed-Blue
Here are a couple small butterflies that can be distinguished, though not at a glance. It's one of our azures and an Eastern Tailed-Blue . This 2 butterflies are similar enough in appearance to suggest some level of relatedness, and they're in the same tribe . (A tribe is a taxonomic level between family and genus.) Let's take a minute to distinguish between these guys. First I'll mention that butterfly watchers will sometimes give you a behavioral identification; if they see 1 of these butterflies flying low to the ground and only moderately fast, they'll identify them as Eastern Tailed-Blues. And if the butterflies are zippier and away from the ground, they're inclined to identify them as one of the azures. (Exactly which azure was a topic in another posting .) While behavioral IDing might work a high percentage of the time, I have seen it fail too. You probably shouldn't argue with such an ID unless you get good looks at the butterfly when it's stati...