Tiny blue butterfly revisited

I went back to the peat bog yesterday to see if there were any more of the silver-studded blues (Plebejus argus) I posted about before.

To my surprise, I saw even less, which means just the one. This is not a good sign; it seems these little blue butterflies aren't doing at all well here.

These little butterflies have a wing span of only 30mm (1.2"), so when they sit with their wings closed they are only about 15mm (0.6") high and surprisingly difficult to spot until they reveal the blue top-side of their wings. When you know what to look for, they can easily be counted, though.

Anyway, I did manage to get some photos, but they are all photos of the same individual. Here's the first shot; it is sitting on heather, as they usually do, hence the Dutch name of heideblauwtje ("small heather blue"):

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 100mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/1000s}

Here's the same one in the shade, which changes its colours a bit. It let me get really close, notice the focal length:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 42mm, ISO160, f8, 1/160s}

They prefer to eat from heather as well:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 100mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/800s}

Not all types of heather growing here were in bloom yet, maybe that is why it decided to have a go at the nearby orchids; it really stuck its face in:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO100, f8, 1/500s}

I hope more show up over the next few days.

Thanks for watching!