Sky-blue poison frog

Description

The silver-studded blue (Plebejus argus) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.This eye-catching butterfly has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings,lending it the name of the silver-studded blue.P.argus can be found across Europe and Asia,but is most often studied in the United Kingdom in which the species has experienced a severe decline in population due to habitat loss and fragmentation.Importantly,P.argus engages in mutualism with ants that contribute to the butterflies’ reproductive fitness by providing protection from predation and parasitism from the point of egg laying to their emergence as adults.P.argus adults emerge in the end of June and beginning of July and engage in flight into the beginning of August.The butterfly is adaptable to different habitats and is found in heathland,mossland,and limestone grassland.Tending towards a sedentary lifestyle and typically flying less than twenty meters a day,P.argus maintains a small radius home range.Their habitats lend themselves well to both foraging and egg laying as the host plants are ubiquitous in all three environments they occupy.