Pacific Northwest Azures

Here is a little blue glimmer of spring to look forward to. Echo Azures (Celastrina echo) are common and widespread throughout most of western Washington and Oregon and forested areas of the eastern side of the Cascades. Lucy's Azure (Celastrina lucia) is known only from a small area of central Washington (parts of Yakima and Kittitas counties) in the Pacific Northwest, although they occur elsewhere in the central and eastern US. They are very similar and hard to distinguish at first glance. Lucy's Azure generally has a brighter, frostier blue dorsal color on both males and females, compared to the deeper, lavender blue of the Echo Azure. A full profile description of the Echo Azure is found here in a past blog post. Both species use similar habitats and an array of host plants.