American holly azure facts for kids

The American holly azure (scientific name: Celastrina idella) is a beautiful type of butterfly. It belongs to the Lycaenidae family, which includes many small, colorful butterflies. You can find this butterfly along the east coast of the United States.

What do they look like?

Adult Butterflies

Adult American holly azures have wings that are a pretty light blue or purplish-blue color on top. The females' wings are often shinier than the males'. The edges of their wings are white. If you look at the underside of their wings, they are light gray or white with dull black spots.

Caterpillars

The caterpillars of this butterfly can be green or white. Some even have cool white V-shaped marks on their backs.

How are they different from other butterflies?

It can be tricky to tell American holly azures apart from other similar butterflies. They are usually smaller than other azure species. Their wing color, when they fly, and what plants their caterpillars eat also help tell them apart.

For example, Northern azure butterflies are bigger and have brighter colors. They also fly earlier in the year. Spring azure butterflies look very similar. It's hard to tell them apart without looking closely at their wing scales. Summer azure butterflies fly later in the year. They also like to lay their eggs on black cherry trees. American holly azures don't usually fly when summer azures do. Appalachian azures and cherry gall azures live in different areas, more to the west.

Where do they live?

You can find the American holly azure butterfly along the Atlantic coast of the United States. Their home range stretches from New Jersey all the way down to Georgia.

Life Cycle of the American Holly Azure

From Egg to Butterfly

The American holly azure butterfly has one main flight period each year. This happens in the spring. It's usually after the northern azures fly but before the main group of summer azures. However, they do fly at the same time as spring azures and cherry gall azures. In the northern parts of their range, they fly from late April to late May.

Adults

Adult butterflies appear in the spring. They have spent a long time as pupae, resting through the summer, autumn, winter, and early spring.

Eggs

Female butterflies lay their tiny white eggs on the buds of holly flowers.

Caterpillars

When the caterpillars hatch, they bore into the holly flower buds. This happens in late spring. Interestingly, some types of ants, like the ferruginous carpenter ant (Camponotus chromaiodes), sometimes hang out with the caterpillars.

Pupae

In late spring or early summer, the caterpillars change into light brown pupae. A pupa is like a chrysalis. The pupae then go into a special resting state called diapause. This is like a long nap that lasts until the next spring.

What do they eat?

Adult Butterflies' Food

Adult American holly azure butterflies drink nectar from various flowers. They like plants such as highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), sand myrtle (Kalmia buxifolia), and different types of chokeberries (Aronia arbutifolia and Aronia melanocarpa). They also enjoy nectar from black cherry (Prunus serotina), red maple (Acer rubrum), and rock cress (Arabis species).

Caterpillars' Food

American holly azure caterpillars are picky eaters! They mostly eat the flowering parts of male holly plants. Their favorite holly species include American holly (Ilex opaca), inkberry (Ilex glabra), smooth winterberry (Ilex laevigata), and Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria). Sometimes, they might also eat from tall gallberry holly (Ilex coriacea) or Virginia willow (Itea virginica).

How they became unique

American holly azures live in the same areas as other closely related azure butterflies. However, they have become special because they adapted to eat certain host plants. Scientists think that this adaptation to specific plants might have caused new species to form. This means that groups of azures might have slowly become different from each other because they started using different plants for food.