About Iolana iolas (Ochsenheimer, 1816)
Scientific name: Iolana iolas (Ochsenheimer, 1816). The following description is adapted from Seitz. Males have a magnificent violet-blue upper wing surface, with a narrow black border and white fringes. Females have a broad black margin on the forewing and large black distal marginal dots on the hindwing. The underside of the wings is dust-grey, with faint blue dusting at the base of the hindwing. Apart from the discal row of ocelli, only the discocellular bar and two basal ocelli on the hindwing are distinct. The ocelli of the discal row are sometimes more strongly developed (ab. opulenta Schultz), and sometimes more weakly developed (ab. debilitata Schultz). This species occurs in Southern and Southeastern regions, ranging south from Vienna and Hungary to North Africa, and east to Persia and Turkestan; it is also found in Spain. Caterpillars develop inside the pods of Colutea arborescens, and match the color of the pod they inhabit: they can be green, reddish, or coffee-brown, with a dark dorsal line that is flanked on each side by blackish oblique smears edged with pale borders. Larvae can be found until June, and again in the autumn; they often share pods with earwigs and ants, according to Aigner. The pupa is grey-brown, with dark dots on the sides, and develops in a sparse web on the ground; it sometimes remains over the winter to emerge the next year. Adult butterflies fly in May, and again in July and August, producing two (possibly irregular) broods. They usually fly singly, in localities where their food plant grows.
