Common blue

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 12:45 am

Not the most original subject but also the common subjects have to be photographed:)

Wim

salden · Post by **salden** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:11 am

Hey..so that is what this is named. I photographed this guy in my garden, and have yet been able to find the name.

Beautiful image, much better than the one I took. I think this BF is one of the cutest BFs out there.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:27 am

Seems as though I have seen these butterflies too, though I have never photographed one, yet. Beautiful image Wim, thanks

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:23 am

Thanks ! I think it is the Common blue but there are many similar species that are hard to identify and these could be less common:-) But if it is the common blue it has a nice latin name: Polyommatus icarus

Wim

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:40 am

I think Wim's butterfly is the Common Blue:-

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kite/digiscopics/ ... uwtje.html

If you want to identify something, the easiest way is to ask your search engine the question you want answering! You don't need to know exactly what the subject is. As Wim is from Holland I just put in "Dutch Butterflies" and got a choice of many sites dealing with them.

As Wim says it seems to be Polyomattus icarus - The Common Blue which we also get in England. Wim's picture is better than that on the other site.

salden

Just ask your search engine what your countries butterflies are and see if you get the Common Blue too.

DaveW

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:52 am

Thank you! Good suggestion! And as you can see the dutch name is Icarus Blue. Sounds better than common:)

Wim

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:56 am

Sue

Just put "Pennsylvania butterflies" into my search engine and got these sites:-

http://www.butterflyhaven.com/Pennsylva ... rflies.htm

http://www.phab001.com/buts/cw1.htm

There are many more.

DaveW

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:59 am

If an Icarus Blue flies too close to the sun does it's wings fall off?

DaveW

salden · Post by **salden** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:37 am

thanks for the link. I will try it and see if my BF is the same thing. I do not think so since I do not have the "blue" at the bottom, but everything else is the same.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 11:19 am

Very beautiful butterfly Wim & an excellent photo of it.

TomWhelan · Post by **TomWhelan** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:48 pm

Lovely shot, Wim! Unfortunately for Sue, she won't see this blue in N America. In the Eastern US north of Virginia, there are only a couple or three blues not including the Azures. The commonest blue is the pretty Eastern Tailed Blue. A good, basic web source for N Am species is:

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

In Florida there are some cool blues, and out in Western US there are a number of blue species including some that look like P. icarus.

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 2:23 am

We have quite a few blues in the UK. I was surprised to see so few listed for Holland. For those in the UK wishing to identify our butterflies here is a good site:-

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/index.php

DaveW

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:13 am

Yes, actually, butterflies are not doing well in my country. Overpopulation of H. sapiens, a pest that is hard to control:)

Wim

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:59 am

They are now trying to get road builders here to make the verges into wildlife corridors to link various remaining sites. The problem in the past was that habitats have become separated by urban development and so creatures do not easily interchange between them. Using properly planted roadside verges links these separated habitats once again.

In previous times the railways used to do this as trackside verges were largely uncultivated or sprayed and used to link other habitats up and down the country. However with many rail tracks being ripped up in the UK to be replaced by roads, the roads now need to perform this function in future.

DaveW

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:13 am

Yes, Dave, In the Netherlands they are also trying to connect nature areas but these are often widely scattered. We have a much denser human population. I think the introduction of large carnivores like wolfs and lions would be a better solution!

Wim