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Satyrium acaciae

Sloe Hairstreak

Field Notes

Transylvania, Romania, May 2009

Geneva, Switzerland, mid June 2007
Already appears worn.

SE Czech Republic, June 2001 (m)

Slovakia, June 2001

The female is on the right - the orange marks on the underside hindwing
extend further forward than in the male

Macedonia, Greece, July 2000 (m)

This is one of the fairly "bland" grey-brown Hairstreaks found across southern and central Europe. This species doesn't extend south of northern Spain but it is found across the whole of central Europe including the east. It is separated from its most similar cousins, the Ilex and False Ilex Hairstreaks, Satyrium ilicis and S. esculi, by its lighter grey underside ground colour, smaller size and the underside hindwing orange markings all touching and confined toe the lower half of the wing. In reality it isn't that difficult to tell apart from these two species but until you've seen one you might be skeptical about that!

I've recently been guilty of including the mating pair (see above) on the page for the Blue Spot Hairstreak, S. spini. It might help others to note that acaciae also has a blue spot, albeit somewhat smaller than spini. At the anal angle has an orange patch just beside this blue spot in acaciae. This is absent in spini.

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