Geranium bronze

This is the infamous ‘butterfly of the geraniums’ that was accidentally introduced into Mallorca in 1989 from South Africa, and which has spread extraordinarily in recent years throughout much of Europe. Its caterpillars are a plague on the leaves of cultivated geraniums and so this species is most commonly seen in built-up areas. It resembles a little the long-tailed blue and Lang’s short-tailed blue but its wings are brown above and it has a characteristic design on the underwing. It spends the winter as a caterpillar or as a chrysalis on the very geranium plants that it feeds on.
Scientific name: Cacyreus marshalli

See all butterflies of Menorca