(Prunner, 1798)
Alpine Blue
Description:
In the Alps, the Alpine Blue is mostly found on sunny, rocky slopes, scree slopes with patches of flower-rich vegetation, and often on the rough vegetation growing beside streams. These butterflies usually fly to lower-lying areas in search of nectar. The food plants are Alpine Milk-vetch (Astragalus alpinus), Alpine Sainfoin (Hedysarum hedysaroides), and probably Mountain Beaked Milk-vetch (Oxytropis jacquinii). In Scandinavia, this blue occurs in the mountains on open, damp slate slopes where its food plant Alpine Milk-vetch grows.
The Alpine Blue hibernates in the pupal stage and has one generation a year.
Habitat:
Alpine grasslands
Screes
Inland cliffs and exposed rocks
Similar species:
Plebeius pyrenaica
Plebeius glandon