Cassius Blue

Leptotes cassius

"Leptotes cassius" is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America in Florida including the Keys, Texas south through the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America to South America. Strays have been found in New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
Cassius Blue (Leptotes cassius) Islas Jovenes, Loreto, Peru. Nov 13, 2022 Cassius Blue,Geotagged,Leptotes cassius,Peru,Spring

Appearance

The wingspan is 20–35 mm.
Cassius Blue Leptotes cassius This Butterfly appeared in the garden this morning, liking the asters. The wings have a tiger pattern, and there was a slight orange color around the two larger circles on the wing. The color may be slightly distorted because a strong sun was whining through the wings. https://www.jungledragon.com/image/102930/unknown_white-brown_butterfly.html Fall,Geotagged,Leptotes Cassius,Leptotes cassius,United States

Naming

* "L. c. cassius" – Suriname
⤷  "L. c. catilina"
⤷  "L. c. theonus" – Florida, Cuba, Bahamas, Greater Antilles
⤷  "L. c. cassidula" – Texas, Mexico, Honduras to Panama
⤷  "L. c. cassioides" – Windward Islands, including Dominica and Trinidad & Tobago
⤷  "L. c. striata"

"L. c. theonus" is the type species of the genus "Leptotes".

Food

The caterpillars feed natively on Fabaceae. Food plants on record are "Amorpha crenulata", woolly rattlepod, "Galactia regularis" and lima bean. It can also successfully develop feeding on Cape leadwort or doctorbush, which are not closely related to its usual food plants.

Uses

The butterfly species has an important role in Marisha Pessl's 2006 novel "Special Topics in Calamity Physics". The protagonist, Blue van Meer, is named in honor of the Cassius blue.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Status: Unknown
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Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderLepidoptera
FamilyLycaenidae
GenusLeptotes
SpeciesL. cassius
Photographed in
Peru
United States of America