The Tiny Blue Gem

The Ceraunus Blue is definitely not among the large spectacular butterflies that attract most of the attention. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for their fluttering motion as they fly from flower to flower, they would probably remain completely unnoticed. With their wings folded, as they are in this set of photographs, they are all of about a half inch (12.5 mm) from their body to the top of their forewing:

These truly are the tiny blue gems of the Order Lepidoptera. They can use many of the legumes as larval host plants, including the Honey Mesquite. The adults feed on nectar from a wide variety of plants. I haven't had time to even begin to figure out what the flower is in the first two photographs, but the leaves look very intriguing. The flowers in the last three photographs are a Polygonum sp.* other than P. lapathifolium (Curlytop Knotweed).

This set of photographs was taken along the SSG Morningstar Boardwalk on the Salado Creek Greenway Trail on Monday, November 11, 2013.

* When I began to try to identify the particular species of this flower, I was surprised to learn how many species there are in the Genus Polygonum.