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Cupido minimus
This lovely little blue butterfly is the smallest of our British butterfly species and within these county borders it may be found all along the South Downs. The 2010-14 county survey distribution map showed a wide distribution on the chalk between Storrington and Eastbourne with rather fewer colonies in the more wooded part of the South Downs to the west of the Arun Valley. In flight it could be confused with a very small Brown Argus but when perched and showing off its beautiful uppersides of uniform charcoal-grey, it's quite unmistakable.
The first adults emerge in late April or the first 10-12 days of May, depending on the warmth of the spring weather. The males are invariably the first to appear, and we can find them perched prominently in sunny, sheltered nooks waiting for the virgin females to come to them. Courtship is brief and once mated the female avoids these perching areas, concentrating on the patches of Kidney Vetch within the colony, where she feeds, rests, basks and lays her pale-blue eggs between the yellow florets of the flowerhead.
There is second weaker brood between mid-July and early September. In a very favourable year there may be a tiny third brood, from mid-September, onwards.
More-or-less anywhere on the South Downs where we can find Kidney Vetch. Some of the larger colonies can be found at Castle Hill NNR from TQ369071 to TQ366069, Friston Forest Gallops from TV544991 to TV554997, Kithurst Hill at TQ070125, Well Bottom at TQ4505 and Windover Hill from TQ532032 to TQ543033.
A territorial male Small Blue – photo by Martin Kalaher
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Female on Yellow Rattle
Male at rest
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Female nectaring on Kidney Vetch
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Egg-laying on Kidney Vetch
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A mating pair
Butterfly Conservation Small Blue
