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Melissa Blue
Plebejus melissa
The Melissa blue (Plebejus melissa) is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in western North America, from Canada to Mexico. The Karner blue (Plebejus melissa samuelis) is a subspecies of the Melissa blue, and was described by the novelist/lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov.
From the article Melissa blue on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The wingspan is 22–35 mm. Below, the hindwing orange submarginal band, often with distal iridescent blue points, help to distinguish this species from the more muted colors and markings of the similar Plebejus idas. The marginal line is wider where the veins intersect. The fringes are not checked.
What it does
The butterfly flies from April to August depending on the location. The larvae feed on Lupinus, Medicago and Lotus species.
Wikipedia: “Behavior and diet”
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Plebejus melissa in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 122383.