Wing span: 3/4 - 1 1/8 inches (2 - 2.9 cm).

Identification: Upperside of male light blue with darker veins and dusky border; female darker. Underside of forewing with postmedian row of 5 round black spots circled with white.

Life history: Males patrol for females with an erratic flight during daytime. Females lay eggs singly on flower buds of host during midday. Caterpillars eat flowers and seedpods, sometimes leaves; and are tended by ants which presumably protect the caterpillars in return for their sugary secretions.

Flight: All year in South Texas; 3 broods from March-November in the remainder of its residential range; migrates north once each year after hibernating in the south.

Caterpillar hosts: Many plants in the pea family (Fabaceae) including yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis), rattleweed (Astragalus), mesquite (Prosopis), indigo bush (Dalea), mimosa (Albizia), and indigo (Indigofera) species.

Adult food: Flower nectar from a variety of herbs including spearmint and white sweet clover.

Habitat: Grasslands, fields, desert, meadows, weedy areas, creeksides.

Range: Resident from southern California, the Southwest, and Texas through Mexico and Central America to Costa Rica. Summer migrant north and east through the Mississippi River states to Wisconsin and Ohio.