I had business near my old stomping grounds area of Jefferson County, WV so I thought I’d take a short walk in Shannondale Springs WMA where I had found my first azures last year. I saw two fresh Summer Azures (c. neglecta) on the wing identified by their heavy black maculations on the ventral side when compared to the brown’ish markings of Spring Azure (c. ladon). In flight the bright blue on the doral side was quite apparent. Fresh c. ladon will appear a more purple-blue. Lastly, to my eye the ventral ground color on c. neglecta is lighter than c. ladon which looks dirty to me even when fresh.
This sighting is two weeks earlier than last season. The below images (taken last year) show these differences.
Click on image for a larger size
Of course, as Pavulaan has pointed out, ventral shots of these two azures are not diagnostic. Always good to have an associated dorsal shot.
Correct, not 100%… However, these “SB C. neglectas” looked sky blue on the wing. C. ladon when fresh would have a purple’ish coloration on the wing. Hard to get dorsal shots without netting and that is something I’m not going to do since I’m not doing research. Even without a dorsal shot you can get a very resonable percentage correct (per comm w/Harry) of around 90% if you look at in flight coloration, your locale, proximity to hosts.
I have to admit that I didn’t read the whole thing, before looking at the photos and thinking those aren’t the same. Thank you, Matt. I didn’t know about the brown & black differences.
When do you typically see the first Spring Azures in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia?
John,
See the first C. ladons (Spring Azure) around the 12-16th in the immediate area. Around DC there have already been some sporadic reports. Have seen “spring brood” C. neglectas (Summer Azure) for a while now as they are typically the first azures of the late winter early sping. C lucia (Northern Azure) is already been reported on the ridges in northern VA by Harry Pavulaan and I think I had one last week on the ridges of Sleepy Creek.