Lepidoptera Survey, International
The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey
Date of this Version
12-12-2025
Document Type
Journal Issue
Citation
The Taxonomic Report (December 12, 2025) 13(2): 1-5
Abstract
The Celastrina (“Azure”) populations of the central Appalachian Mountain region have traditionally been identified as Celastrina ladon (Cramer) by numerous authors. However, the discovery of elongated dorsal wing scales in males of C. ladon (Wright & Pavulaan, 1999; Ômura et al., 2015) established that this diagnostic trait is limited to C. ladon, C. nigra (W. Forbes), and subsequently C. iryna (Pavulaan). Microscopic examination of male “Spring Azure” specimens from higher elevations in the Appalachian Mountains revealed a complete absence of these elongated scales in the resident populations, despite their outward resemblance to C. ladon. This finding demonstrates that C. ladon does not occur as a resident species at higher elevations. Additionally, the natural history characteristics of these populations strongly indicate their placement within the C. lucia species complex (“Northern Azures”).
Comments
Copyright 2025, Harry Pavulaan. Open access
License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-SA-NC 4.0 International)