Lysandra bellargus
Wingspan: 38 mm
Description
The male has brilliant turquoise blue uppperwings, edged with a fine black line. In both sexes the white fringes are distinctive as the dark cross veins intersect the white, this can help distinguish this species from the common blue. The base colour of the female upperwings is brown. On the lower edge of the hindwings are a number of small black spots surrounded with orange and blue. In the female Chalkhill Blue these spots are surrounded by orange and white.
Flight Period
Double brooded: mid-May to mid-July and August to September
Larval Food plants
Horse-shoe Vetch (Hippocrepis cosmosa)
Habitat Requirements
Calcareous downland
Wiltshire Status
Resident (Population Fluctuates)
Wiltshire Sites
Bratton Castle (Earthworks)
Barbury castle
Pewsey down
Cherhill Down
Park Bottom
Earliest sightings
Earliest county record 23rd April 2011, Whitesheet Hill Quarry (David Rear)
Latest county record
26th October 2010