Spanish Argus

Aricia morronensis, the Spanish argus, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in Spain and Hautes-Pyrénées (France).

The wingspan is 22–26 mm.^[3] Adults are on wing from June to September in usually one, but sometimes two generations per year.^[4]

The larvae feed on the leaves of Erodium species.^[5] They are attended by ants. The species overwinters in the larval stage.

Seitz 80k

Description from Seitz

L. idas Rbr. (79 k). Above black-brown with dark median spot on the forewing, the fringes pale, only slightly darkened at the tips of the veins. Underside coffee-brown, with feeble reddish tinge, the ocelli being similarly arranged as in astrarche; the hindwing with pale longitudinal streak from the centre of the wing to the middle of the outer margin, the streak being generally much more prominent than in our figure. — In the Sierra Nevada, at 1000 ft., in July.^[6]

Subspecies

• Aricia morronensis morronensis present in Andalusia (South Spain) and South Albacete and Murcia.
• Aricia morronensis hersselbarthi (Manley, 1970) in Abejar (Soria, Spain)
• Aricia morronensis ramburi (Verity, 1913) present in Sierra Nevada
• Aricia morronensis boudrani (Leraut, 1999) present at the Col du Tourmalet and the Cirque de Gavarnie des Hautes-Pyrénées.

References

• Gil-T., F. (2009): Concerning Aricia morronensis in the south and south-east of Spain: new localities, a revision of its sub-specific status, and a proposal of synonymy (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Atalanta 40 (1/2): 193-199, 331. Full article: [1].
• Shaw, M. & F. Gil-T. (2008): The first known parasitoid of Aricia morronensis (Ribbe, 1910), an endemic Iberian species, and notes on the parasitoids (Hymenoptera; Diptera) of the genus Aricia in Europe (Lep.: Lycaenidae; Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Ichneumonidae; Diptera: Tachinidae). Atalanta 39 (1/4): 343-346, 423. Full article: [2].