Blue Mélissa – Wikipedia

Plebeian melissa

The Mélissa Blue ( Plebeian melissa ) is a North American species of lepidoptera from the Lycaenidae family and the polymistinae subfamily.

The species Plebeian melissa was described by American entomologist William Henry Edwards in 1873, under the initial name of Lycaena Melissa ^{[ first ]} .

Plebeian melissa is known under the following other combinations ^{[ first ]} :

• Lycaena Melissa Edwards, 1873 — protonyme
• Lycaeides Melissa (Edwards, 1873)
• Melissa rural (Edwards, 1873)

Subspecies [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Several subspecies have been described ^{[ first ] , [ 2 ]} :

• Plebeian melissa melissa (Edwards, 1873) -West of Canada and the United States (notably Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona).
• Melissa Plebeiana Samuel (Nabokov, 1943) – In English Karner Blue ; sometimes considered a distinct species. Present in the Great Lakes region (Wisconsin and Michigan), New Jersey, southern New Hampshire and New York State.
• Plebejus Melissa Annetta (Edwards, 1882) — Utah.
• Plebeian melissa paradoxa (Chermock, 1945) – California.
• Plebeian melissa pseudosamuelis (Nabokov, 1949) — Colorado.
• Plebeian melissa inyoensis (Nabokov, 1949) – California, Nevada.
• Plebejus Melissa Mexicana (Clench, 1965) – Mexico.
• Plebeian melissa (Austin, 1998) — Nevada.
• Plebeian melissa fridayi (Chermock, 1945) – Sierra Nevada and South Oregon – often considered a distinct species.

• In English : Melissa Blue ^{[ first ]} (And Karner Blue For the subspecies Samuel ).
• In French: Blue Mélissa ^{[ 3 ]} or the blue melissa.

The imago of Plebeian melissa is a little butterfly with a scale of 22 to 35 mm , which presents a sexual dimorphism: the top of the male is blue with a thin black border and a white bangs, and that of the female is brown with a blue basal suffusion and a series of orange orange lunules orange lunules ^{[ 4 ]} .
The reverse of the wings has a gray background, decorated with series of black dots circled in white and a submarginal line of orange spots.

Flight and wintering period [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Eastern subspecies Samuel flies in two generations from May to August, and the Western subspecies melissa in three generations from April to October ^{[ 4 ]} .
The species winters in the form of an egg or a neonat caterpillar ^{[ 3 ]} .

Host plants and myrmecophilia [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

There are many larval hosts for the subspecies melissa , which consumes Astragalus ( A. adsurgens , A. Crassicarpus , A. flexuous , A. lotiflorus , A. missouriensis ), Oxytropis lambertii , Medicago sativa And Coronilla varies ^{[ first ]} . The life cycle of the subspecies Samuel depends on a kind of lupine, Lupine perennial (in) .

The caterpillars are supported by ants ^{[ 3 ]} .

Plebeian melissa is present in North America in two areas: one to the west, from Canada to Mexico via the western half of the United States, reaching the East Minnesota, Iowa and Texas; and the other to the east, from Wisconsin to New Hampshire (subspecies Samuel ) ^{[ first ] , [ 4 ]} .

The species is found in open spaces, especially meadows and clearings ^{[ 4 ] , [ 3 ]} .

The subspecies Samuel is classified as threatened with disappearance in all its distribution area ^{[ 4 ]} and was classified as disappeared from Canada in May 2000. It was the subject of conservation efforts.

Related articles [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

external links [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Taxonomic references [ modifier | Modifier and code ]