Cranberry Blue (Plebejus optilete)

This is one of the more easily identifiable Blue butterflies. It has only 1-3 orange spots on its hind wing. Cranberry Blue is common in the whole of Finland.

comments (3)

Annette Flottwell

Lion

lovely shot! these orange spots are quite common in Asian blues, but not in European ones!
I am truly amazed by your dirvesity in blues. How many different ones are there in Finland? Posted 9 years ago
1. Ari Parviainen
  
  King Cobra
  
  The subfamily Polyommatinae has only 17 species in Finland and many of them are very local, rare or extremely rare. There are a couple more quite near in Russia and Baltian countries but as far as I know these species from the nearby areas have not yet been found in Finland. Just last summer I got one of the rarest of our Blues (Large Blue) photographed. Probably I will upload a shot of it here too but I'll try to get better ones next June-July ;). Posted 9 years ago

Mark Ridgway

Lion

Yes beautiful picture. Summer is on the way for you northerners. Posted 9 years ago

The Cranberry Blue

The Cranberry Blue is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in North Eastern Europe, the Alps, North Asia, Japan, Korea and North Western North America.

The length of the forewings is ca. 14 mm. The butterfly flies from June to August depending on the location.

The larvae feed on ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'', ''Empetrum nigrum'', Bilberry and other Cranberry and ''Empetrum'' species.

Info 2 0

Similar species: Moths And Butterflies

Species identified by Ari Parviainen