Eastern Tailed-Blue
Everes comyntas
Description
3/4-1" (19-25 mm). Above, male bright silver-blue with thin dark margin and orange and black HW spots near threadlike tail; female slate-gray and black shot with blue. Grayish-white below with distinct curved rows of gray-
black spots becoming hazier toward borders; conspicuous orange black-edged spots above HW tail. Both sexes have white fringe.
Similar Species
Western Tailed-blue larger, paler, with fewer and less distinct spots beneath.
Life Cycle
Eggs laid in flower buds and stems. Caterpillar variable, often dark green and downy with obscured brown and lighter side stripes.
Host plants are many legumes, especially clovers (Trifolium), slender bush clover (Lespedeza), beans (Phaseolus), tick trefoil (Desmodium) wild pea (Lathyrus), and others. Caterpillar overwinters inside pea and bean pods. Chrysalis buff-colored.
Flight
3 broods in North, probably more in South, often overlapping; 1st flight begins in early spring.
Habitat
Disturbed sites: fields, gardens, powerline cuts, railroad lines, and crop fields.
Range
S. Canada to Central America, covering entire area east of Rockies; more spottily west to Pacific at low elevations.
Discussion
One of the East's most abundant butterflies, the low-flying Eastern Tailed-blue readily adapts to human activities; roadsides and rights-of-way create new suitable habitats for its leguminous host plants. Color patterns vary seasonally, spring females bearing much more blue than those of later summer. Populations west of the Rockies may have been introduced after people altered the natural landscape.
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