Photo #3194: Polyommatus damone

Male

Base gallery. Lateral/Underside. Pinned specimen.

Photo, and identified by: Boris Stradomsky. Image redone at the website

Photographer's comment: Description. The length of the forewing is 13-17 mm. In the male, the wings are blue above, shiny, with a thin dark marginal line (up to 0.5 mm); in the female, they are brown. The apex of the forewings is rounded. Below, the male's wings are gray, with a developed blue basal coating on the hindwing; in the female, they are light brown. The marginal pattern of the underparts is distinct. On the hindwings, there is a faint indistinct white streak along the vein, sometimes absent. The length of the valva is 2.3-2.6 mm. The haploid set consists of 67 chromosomes. Biology. Settled meadows, stony steppes. Adult years: late May-September in 1-2 generations, depending on the habitat. Caterpillar food plants: Hedisarum spp. The caterpillar overwinters. Subspecies. Southern Urals: P. damone damone (Eversmann, 1841); southern European Russia: P. damone tanais (Dantchenko et Lukhtanov, 1993); Volga River basin: P. damone irinae (Dantchenko, 1997). Related and similar species. P. damocles: the apex of the forewings is sharp, blue basal pollination on the underside of the hindwings is not pronounced; P. ciscaucasicus: the top of the wings of males is blue-purple; P. damon: the top of the wings of males is greenish-blue; P. ripartii: the top of the wings of males is brown.