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• Gossamer-wing Butterflies
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  • Marine Blue
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  • Eastern Tailed-Blue
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  • Spring Azure
  • ‘Spring’ Spring Azure
  • ‘Summer’ Spring Azure
  • Silvery Blue
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Spring Azure

(Celastrina ladon)

The Spring Azure in the last twenty years has been studied extensively and many believe that it is actually is a complex of several different species. In Wisconsin, Ferge lists the Summer Azure and the Spring Azure as separate species. The USGS web site also lists these as separate species. I have chosen to follow the NABA usage, which still considers these to be two subspecies; the ‘Spring’ Spring Azure and the ‘Summer’ Spring Azure. Either way, we are still discussing essentially the same taxa for these two groups. However, to complicate the matter further, some think that the ‘Spring’ Spring Azure should be separated into two species, the Northern and Southern Spring Azures. Nielsen, in his book on Michigan Butterflies & Skippers, has done this and notes that where the two types of Spring Azures overlap, it is difficult to tell the to apart in nature. This is because the main difference between the two Spring Azures is the size of their scales as viewed under a microscope. Because our understanding of this Azure complex is still very much in its infancy, it is still unclear what the final determinations will be. The map on this page is the map of the species, while distribution maps on the subspecies pages are just for those subspecies. Historical records for these subspecies, although they are taken from the USGS web site, are not necessarily accurate and have not been included here at this time.

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