The Common Blue Butterfly

It's been a good summer for the common blue butterfly this year. We've had large numbers of these beautiful little butterflies in our garden since January, flying low over the lawn and feeding on various flowers in the borders.

Two of their favourites are Nemesia Aromatica (top photo with a female butterfly) and Felicia Amelloides(bottom photo with a male butterfly).

The male butterflies are much bluer with blue scale covering most of their wings. The females just have a small amount of blue around their thorax and are a coppery brown or grey.

They mostly lay there eggs on clover which is why they are in decline around city areas where people either spray clover out of their lawns or cut their lawns too short to allow the larvae time to hatch and develop. I've been letting clumps of clover establish in various places around the garden which I think is partly why we've now got so many of these butterfly in the garden