| Summer Azure | |
|---|---|
| C. n. neglecta, Ottawa, Ontario | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Genus: | Celastrina |
| Species: | C. neglecta |
| Binomial name | |
| Celastrina neglecta (W.H. Edwards, 1862) |
|
The Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in North America. Layberry, Hall and Lafontaine, in The Butterflies of Canada, describe the species:
The upper surface is pale blue with an extensive dusting of white scales, especially on the hindwing. In some females the blue is almost entirely replaced by white with a small amount of blue near the wing bases. Females have a broad blackish-grey band on the outer third and costa of the forewing. The underside is chalky white to pale grey with tiny dark grey spots and a zigzagged submarginal line on the hindwing.[1]
Wingspan is 23 to 29 mm (15/16 to 11/8 in).
The Summer Azure occurs across most of eastern and central United States as well as southern Canada from Nova Scotia to southern Saskatchewan. Adults fly from mid-June until early October with two or three generations in the south.[2]
In their monograph on the Lycaenopsis group of Polyommatine genera, Eliot & Kawazoe considered Lycaena neglecta Edwards, 1862, to be a synonym of Lycaena lucia Kirby, 1837, which they listed as subspecies Celastrina argiolus lucia. Thus the according here of specific status to neglecta is of doubtful authenticity.