Polyommatus golgus

Appearance

It is a small butterfly (forewing length is 11 to 16 mm) that has a sexual dimorphism, the upperside of the male is bright blue to light sky blue, that of the female is brown, decorated with a submarginal line of large orange macules. Both sexes have their wings lined with a white fringe. The underside is light ochre to brownish-grey adorned with a submarginal line of white lunula centred by a more or less marked black point and discreetly surrounded by orange.

Range and habitat

It is endemic to Spain with habitat in the Sierra Nevada in Andalusia (Granada and Almería provinces), and is an endangered species. Submarginal lunules are of pale orange colour, they are variable in number and size and close to them are noticeable black marginal spots.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet

The adult is what most collections hold. The larva — the feeding stage — is often undescribed for the rarest names.

Life history follows the order: complete metamorphosis in moths and beetles, nymphs in grasshoppers and bugs. This page does not invent a host plant that no source named.

In crisis

Named moths and butterflies with a high threat category are often known from a small range and a thin series. Host-plant loss leaves little to recount.

Polyommatus golgus is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Polyommatus golgus, Wikidata item Q1864624. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.