Chequered Blue Butterfly

Appearance

Above and beneath rather similar to "Pseudophilotes baton" but larger and darker, recognizable by the fringes being very distinctly spotted and the white underside abundantly and heavily spotted with black, the hindwing beneath bearing a bright orange-red submarginal band. Throughout Europe, West and North Asia, excepting England, the arctic countries and Japan;from Finland to the Mediterranean Islands and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. — ab. "nigra" Gerh. occurs everywhere among ordinary specimens and is the prevalent form in some districts, e. g. in the Valais; differs in the uniformly dark upperside, on which only the discocellular spot is visible — ab. "ornata" Stgr. is very blue above, such specimens being found singly in Europe and as a regular spring-form in East Asia. — "orithyia" Gr.-Grsh. are specimens from the Sinin Mts. in North Tibet, which form a transition to "ornata". the light blue marginal rings characteristic of ornata being entirely or nearly absent. — Egg flattened, white. Larva light green with black head and black spiracles; the first ring, a lateral stripe, the dorsal line and a row of spots on each side of the dorsal line carmine; in the autumn and in the south again in June, on species of Sedum; often guarded by ants. Pupa dirty yellow, greenish at the wing-cases, fastened either on the ground or above it on plants, sometimes a number together. The butterflies in the early spring, and in the south again in August, very local, being absent from large districts, but generally not rare, particularly on chalk in stony places. In China, Corea and Amurland the species is much more generally distributed than in Europe, but always confined to the localities of the food-plant."

Naming

*"Scolitantides orion orion" Europe, Russia, Caucasus, Central Siberia, Transbaikalia, Russian Far East
⤷ "Scolitantides orion jezoensis" Amur Oblast, Ussuri, Sakhalin
⤷ "Scolitantides orion johanseni" North China and Altai Mountains North Tien-Shan, Dzungarian Alatau,, Sayan Mountains
⤷ "Scolitantides orion lariana" French Alps, Corsica, North Italy to Greece
⤷ "Scolitantides orion parvula" De Sagarra 1926 Spain and France
⤷ "Scolitantides orion ultraornata" Verity, 1937 Scandinavia

The male is 13 to 16 mm. In France there is usually a single generation flying in May and June, sometimes there are two generatins May then September. The butterfly lives in rocky areas up to 1000 m of altitude, on plants such as "Sedum telephium" and "Sedum album".