Butterflies: Holly Blue

Another one in the "blues" family: the holly blue (Celastrina argiolus), boomblauwtje in Dutch, formerly and more accurately known as zilverblauwtje.

A small, subtly coloured, but pretty little butterfly, this one, native to Eurasia and North America, so these can be enjoyed in the colonies as well.

In The Netherlands this species usually has two generations each year, the first from April to June, the second from July to September. Very rarely there is a third generation from August to October.

The first generation feeds mainly on holly, hence the name. As it turns out, I never got a shot of one on that tree. Just pretend this one is sitting on holly:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/160s}

This species is notorious among photographers for always sitting with its wings closed (little bastards, they are), but I did manage to get this one photo, and not a bad composition as well, even if I say so myself:

^{Olympus XZ-1, 112mm, ISO100, f8, 1/400s}

The Dutch name translates as "tree blue", but they don't hang around in trees all that much at all, so it took quite a while before I got a shot of one in a tree:

^{Olympus XZ-1, 112mm, ISO100, f8, 1/250s}

Except for the first generation, these holly blues arent very picky when it comes to eating, most flowers will do:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f4, 1/250s}

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/500s}

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/1000s}

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 200mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/400s}

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/800s}

I suspect this one was posing for me:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 42mm, ISO200, f8, 1/100s}

Thanks for watching!

"Blues" so far:

• Silver-Studded Blue
• Alcon Blue
• Common Blue
• Brown Argus
• Holly Blue

Previous in series: Brown Argus.