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Butterfly populations are a very good indicator of the health of an area's ecosystem !!
Images contributed by UK
photographer Mike Young.
   Chalk Hill Blues are small sexually dimorphic butterflies. The males have pale silvery blue dorsal side wings with a submarginal line of grey spots on the hindwings and a thin brown and white checkered fringe.
   Females have dark brown dorsal side wings, with marginal orange spots also with checkered fringes.     The ventral side wings show a light ochre coloration, several dark spots surrounded by white, a submarginal line of black marks, a series of marginal orange spots on the hindwings and a blue dusting near the body.
    Chalk Hill Blues have a preference for dry calcareous grasslands, at elevations up to  6,560 ft.  above sea level. They also have a preference for grasslands that have short grass with many flowering plants.
   They are a sedentary butterfly which means that they do not travel far within their habitat. They have the tendency to stay within their territory rather than perform long migrations to find new habitats.
   Chalk Hill Blues only produces one generation per year making them a univoltine, meaning that only breed once per year and will only produce one set of offspring.
   Caterpillars exude a honeydew consisting of sucrose, glucose and 14 amino acids. These are ‘milked’ by the ants, which can receive over a quarter of their total energy needs this way. In return, the caterpillars are given protection by the ants, and the chrysalises are protected in earthen cells created for them by the ants.
   The chrysalis itself can even attract ants by exuding amino acids, and has a sound organ which can chirp to them, at a pitch that humans cannot hear.
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Diet: Caterpillar food plants are Horseshoe Vetch

Diet: adults often feed on Knapweed and Scabiouses.
Avg. wingspan: 3.0 – 3.6 cm  /  1.2 – 1.4 "
Family: Lycaenidae
Chalk Hill Blue caterpillar
Chalk Hill Blue caterpillar
Chalk Hill Blue chrysalis
The single biggest threat to butterfly survival is habitat destruction!!
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