Summer Azure
Celastrina neglecta
Summer Azure · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 26 July 2026
A Summer Azure perched with wings closed in the late-July border, one of the smallest butterflies in the garden and one of the commonest across the eastern woods and their edges from June to September. The caterpillars feed on the flower buds of dogwood, viburnum and a dozen other shrubs.
The pale grey underside with its scatter of small black spots is the pattern that separates the Azures from the region's other small blues, though telling this species from its close relative the Spring Azure by sight is genuinely difficult and mostly comes down to season. A late-July date makes Summer Azure the safer call.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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