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Butterfly Survey 1976-2020
Common Blue
Female
wingspan: 28mm
Habit: The Common Blue is common on rough uncultivated grassland and verges and anywhere that its foodplant, birds foot trefoil can be found. Flies low - bright blue male substantially more active in flight than subtler female.
Double brooded, eggs are laid singly, the larvae feeding for several weeks before pupation. This cycle is interrupted at about the second instar stage for the overwintering larvae, which resume the cycle in the spring, the butterfly emerging in mid May.
Larval Foodplant: birds food trefoil, rest harrow and related plants
Status: not under threat, except from urban expansion, leisure grazing, the usual local council Inept management and mono culture grassland in parks and public spaces. Present in Shoreham, Eynsford, Ruxley, Bromley, High Elms
WH - White Hill Shoreham, BC - Bromley Common, BIC-Bickley, Kes - Keston, Ha - Hayes --BN - Bromley North - Ey Eynsford - Orp-Orpington, FACK - Fackenden Down and Bank
Thanks to Howard Walmsley and David Davis, Fred O'Hare
By Rodney Compton