Photo © Pete Eeles
Long-tailed Blue
Lampides boeticus
Checklist Number61.008 [B&F: 1567]
Verification
Record will require further evidence, at least a good photograph, unless CMR is aware recorder has confidence in identification
Classification
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Subfamily: | Polyommatinae |
| Genus: | Lampides |
| Species: | boeticus |
| Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1767) |
Common in farmland, scrubland and flower meadows; 0-2700 m throughout much of southern Europe. In Britain, appears as a rare migrant in the south, with in the order of a hundred or so records since the first in 1859, including 38 in 1945. In Hampshire recorded at Christchurch (vice-county 11) in 1859 and at Claylands LNR in 2006, and on the Isle of Wight on Afton Down in 2001. Wingspan 30-36 mm. Larva feeds on Leguminosae, causing sufficient damage to be a serious pest in some areas.