E-Fauna BC Home

Plebejus lupini Nabokov, 1944
Acmon Blue
Family: Lycaenidae (Gossamer Wings)
Species account authors: Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard.
Extracted from Butterflies of British Columbia.
Introduction to the Lepidoptera of BC
Introduction to the Butterflies of BC
The Families of Lepidoptera of BC

Photograph

© Ian Lane     (Photo ID #661)

Map

Click on map to view a larger version of this map.
Distribution of Plebejus lupini in British Columbia.
(Click on the map to view a larger version.)
Source: Butterflies of British Columbia by Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard © Royal BC Museum

Species Information


Adult

The Acmon Blue is the easiest blue to identify. On the ventral hindwing is a submarginal row of orange spots. Outside the orange spots there is a row of metallic spots not seen in any other BC species of blue. On the upperside the male wings are blue with a row of submarginal orange spots. The upperside of the female wings is brown with blue scales on the basal portion of both wings. Again there is a strong row of submarginal orange spots.

Immature Stages

Emmel and Emmel (1973) described the immatures from Dammers' paintings. The egg is pale green. The mature larva is a dirty yellow with variable lateral markings. The body is covered with short white hairs. There is a dorsal, darker green line. The pupa is initially brown with a green abdomen, whereas a pupa reared from larvae by Shepard changed to dark brown.

Subspecies

BC populations are the northern Great Basin subspecies, I.a. futzi (dos Passos, 1938) (TL: Montpelier, ID).

Genus Description


When Nabokov (1944) coined this generic name, he said it was allied to the European genus Aricia Rechenbach, 1817. Considering Nabokov's love of word games, the generic name lcaricia is a play on that relationship and the name of the type species, icarioides.

The labides of the male genitalia is stout and often toothed. The falces is short, poorly sclerotized, and often inconspicuous. The dorsal tip of the valve is elongate and enlarged except in the species lcaricia shasta (W.H. Edwards, 1862), which does not occur in our fauna.

This Nearctic genus contains five species. Two occur in BC. Larvae feed on either Fabaceae or Polygonaceae.

Biology


The Acmon Blue is univoltine, flying from mid-May at the lowest elevations to mid-August where Eriaganum occurs on open ridges at 1,900 or more metres. Sometimes there is a second generation in the South Okanagan. In BC, the Acmon Blue is always found in association with Eriaganum sp., and occurs wherever the foodplant is found in the interior. Goodpasture (1973) described the life cycle. Eggs are laid individually on leaves and flowers of the foodplant. The species overwinters as a second- or third instar larva in California, where there are at least two broods, but may overwinter at some other stage in BC. Diapause is dependent on day length, and larvae that would normally hibernate will not do so if raised in the lab with 16 hours of daylight. Shepard found that a large number of field-collected larvae yielded tachinid flies rather than butterflies after pupation (JHS).

Habitat


The Acmon Blue is found from the southeastern Chilcotin southeast through the Southern Interior and southern Kootenays.lt is found both in valley bottoms in sage and ponderosa pine habitat and at or near timberline wherever the larval foodplant, Eriogonum sp., grows.

Distribution

Distribution

The Acmon Blue occurs in the Southern Interior of BC and east to SK. From BC it occurs south to Baja California and mainland MEX.

Status Information

Origin StatusProvincial StatusBC List
(Red Blue List)		COSEWIC
NativeS5YellowNot Listed



BC Ministry of Environment: BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer--the authoritative source for conservation information in British Columbia.

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Aricia acmon (Westwood, [1851])
Icaricia acmon (Westwood, [1851])
Lycaena acmon Westwood, [1851]
Lycaena antaegon Boisduval, 1852
Plebejus acmon (Westwood, 1851)
Rusticus acmon (Westwood, [1851])

General References

Google Scholar Search

© 2014 E-Fauna BC  Contact us