Glaucopsyche melanops

Black-eyed Blue (Glaucopsyche melanops)

2024 photographs highlighted in yellow. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.


32479_male_Alpes-Maritimes_1Jun13	23993_female_Var_13Apr11	14821_female_Var_01May09	37109_female_Var_3May15

32472_male_Alpes-Maritimes_1Jun13	14495_male_Var_13Apr09	28757_male_Var_19Apr12	14513_pair_Var_13Apr09

14514_female_Var_13Apr09	4911_female_Var_22Apr07	37095_female_Var_3May15

Melanops is a very early season species, emerging in early April and largely disappeared by the end of the month. Before 2009, I had seen melanops only a few times, although in subsequent years it has turned up at a number of localities. It is allegedly quite common, although I would not entirely agree with that, certainly compared to the ubiquitous Green-underside Blue (G. alexis).

Melanops is quite similar to alexis, the principal differences discussed on the alexis page. The female melanops underside can be rather browner than alexis, and with a rather scruffy appearance.

ref	sex	observations	alt. m
32479	M	a male, the upperside of 32472. The date is unusually late for the PACA region, especially as this specimen is very fresh, 2013 being a very late year.	1080
24440	M	*a fresh male, showing the strong, clean, pale blue characteristic of melanops, and the strong black borders.*	700
23993	F	*having seen a number of female melanops* in 2011, this appears to be fairly typical in terms of the degree of blue scaling.**	140
14821	F	an average amount of blue scaling.	220
37109	F	another female, fairly typical of the Var populations. 37095 is the underside.	220
32472	M	a male, the underside of 32479.	1080
14495	M	I am assuming this is a male, although the darker, greener ground colour strongly suggests female.	140
28757	M	most probably a male, as blue can be seen at the anal angle, but this is by no means certain. However, on studying the magnified image, the end of the foreleg appears to be hooked, which confirms that this is a male.	30
14513	PAIR	a mating pair, the greener female above. The marginal marks, especially of the male, are quite pronounced.	140
14514	F	the female of the above pair, after parting naturally.	140
4911	F	this female with a distended unf black spot in s2 was only the second I had ever seen, but was considerably larger than the first, and larger than indicated in the books. The marginal marks clearly indicate melanops.	430
37095	F	a rather darkish grey underside ground colour, with rather ghosted marginal markings. This is the underside of 37109.	220