Speaking of Azures...

[Jeff Cagle]

As a followup to Richard Orr's post of May 11, what's the latest guidance on sorting Spring Azure from early Summer Azure and Northern Azure?

My vague memory is that there was some work demonstrating that Spring is absent from GRSF in April - those are all either neglecta or lucia - is that correct?

But if I encounter an Azure in April in the wild, what positive characteristics would make me say "ladon" over against the other two?  I'm thinking here of this lady, observed in OH on Apr 27: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/364432692

Also: 

* When is the flight of Holly Azure over on eastern shore / DE?

* What is the latest on the range of Cherry Gall Azure?

* What do we know about the range and flight of C iryna?

Thanks, 

Jeff

[Rick Borchelt]

For mere mortals, I think we've established that female azures of ladon/neglecta are indistinguishable from ventral photographs. Critical ID characters are associated with males, and especially diagnostic features of the male forewings. Harry may have tips to offer. My own standard is that unless you are in a stand of black cohosh in the western counties, everything after mid-May is C. neglecta. Your late April observation on iNat is from an area the species progression for which I don't know, but given allowances for how well the colors display on various monitors, Harry may be able to opine based on the open wing in picture 3.

I personally have not seen Spring Azure (C ladon) after April 20, or about when the second C neglecta flight kicks in for real most years.  That's true also of Northern Azure (C lucia) in GRSF, although I guess allowances might be made for "refrigerator springs" with long, cool -- but not wet -- weeks in late March and April.  We often saw Northern in small numbers on spring counts centered around April 11; this year it was the most abundant azure on the count date of April 4. (although given the newly described lucia iryna we suspect all the material we were seeing in GRSF was this subspecies, see below). I'm sure Harry has better phenology data for the rest of the region. We do have Spring Azure in GRSF, including this year, but almost always either along the high ridge of Piclic Road or along parts of Kasecamp Road, where there are still healthy populations of flowering dogwood.  

While he may have further elucidated Cherry Gall Azure (C serotina) flight period, it was pretty well laid out in his original description, but mostly based on northeast US work (see https://leplog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/pavulaan-wright-2005-c-serotina.pdf).  Generally it appears there to fly between C,. lucia and the second flight of C. neglecta.  I have not seen this species personally in the wild.  

Same goes for C idella.  Harry may have further info to share -- there's some question I think of how this species is faring with respect to neglecta -- but again the original paper lays out the (at the time, 1999) understood phenology (see https://leplog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/pavulaan-wright-1999-taxonomic-rpt-on-c-idella3.pdf).  Looks like a fairly long flight period that commences after C. lucia and may extend into May.  I would not hold out hope to see any this late in Delmarva; Harry may have additional late dates.  My observations have always been in early/mid-April in Dorchester Co. 

And for the new azure subspecies, lucia iryna, the flight period and distribution -- as you might expect from such a newly described taxon -- is not well known yet but is laid out in the description from last year (see https://leplog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/a-new-subspecies-of-_celastrina-lucia_-w.-kirby-lycaeni-copy.pdf).  Given this description, all the C lucia we have been in seeing in GRSF -- where it is mostly a ridgetop species -- probably fall into this subspecies (remember it is not a species in its own right, so C lucia iryna).

I leave to Harry all the hard questions, and of course any corrections to the above, including speculations he might not yet have committed to published literature and with allowances that my caffeine hasn't fully kicked in yet this drizzly morning :)