Arrowhead Blue

Resident in patchy distribution of western North America (Scott 1986). Habitats are mostly transition to Canadian zone woods, also coastal dunes and upper Sonoran woods in Calif. Host plants can be shrubs or herbs with most known hosts restricted to one genus Lupinus. Eggs are laid on the host plant singly. Individuals overwinter as pupae. There is one flight each year with the approximate flight time late May- early July, and Late Mar-May in southern Calif. (Scott 1986).

There are less than 20 known occurrences of this species in the province.

One yearly flight, peaking in mid-June.

Distributed from the dry valleys of southern BC east to the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan (Layberry et al. 1998) south to Baja California and New Mexico (Opler 1999).

One of our most distinctive blues with its white arrow-shaped marks on the hindwing underside and black-and-white checkered wing fringe. Subspecies daunia (W.H. Edwards) occurs in Alberta (Bird et al. 1995).

Prairie grassland valley slopes and hillsides near lupine patches.

The immature stages are incompletely described; the mature larvae can be yellow-brown or green with pale or reddish dorsal and lateral stripes and oblique lateral bands (Layberry et al. 1998). Pupae hibernate (Layberry et al. 1998). This species tends to be uncommon and local in Alberta.

The larval hostplant is not confirmed for Canadian populations, but adults are always closely associated with lupines (Lupinus spp.) in the west (Bird et al. 1995, Guppy & Shepard 2001). The distribution of Lupinus argenteus in Alberta closely resembles that of the Arrowhead Blue (Moss 1992, Bird et al. 1995).

Glaucopsyche piasus, the arrowhead blue, is a western North American butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is a locally common butterfly that favors prairie, open woodland, and woodland edges and trails.

In Felder, 1864

Larvae feed on lupine (Lupinus) and milkvetch (Astragalus) species.