Western Pygmy Blue

Lycaenidae
FamilyLycaenidae
Scientific NameBrephidium exilis
RangeWestern US, Mexico, Caribbean
HabitatSalt marshes, deserts

About the Western Pygmy Blue

One of the smallest butterflies in the world, with a wingspan of only around one to two centimeters. Copper-brown with a blue base to the wings. It lives in salt marshes, deserts, and other alkaline areas where its food plants, saltbushes and pigweeds, grow. Despite its tiny size it can disperse widely. It has been introduced to the Persian Gulf region.

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