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| Common Name | Ceraunus Blue by Jeff Pippen => Miami-Dade Co., FL
9 Aug 2003
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| Scientific Name | Hemiargus ceraunus
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| Link to BAMONA species account. |
| Map | Click on a county for list of all database records for the species in that county.
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| Distribution | DISTRIBUTION: Accidental; records from Brunswick, Richmond, and Gaston counties. A recent record in SC from Chesterfield County, in the northern Sandhills adjacent to NC, suggests that future NC occurrences are most likely either in the Sandhills or along the southern coast.
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| Abundance | ABUNDANCE: A vagrant from the south. Many records in recent years from coastal SC, where it is a possible sporadic resident. The Chesterfield County, SC, record might simply be a stray, but it could possibly breed on occasions in the Sandhills region of central SC.
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| Flight | FLIGHT PERIOD: Not known; most likely to occur in NC in late summer or fall. The only dates available in NC are for August 8 (2005) (Richmond County) and August 15 (1937) (Gaston County).
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| Habitat | HABITAT: Open places; fields, roadsides, woodland edges, etc. In coastal GA, where resident, it is found in dunes and other coastal habitats. To be looked for near low vegetation, where it stays close to the ground like an Eastern Tailed-Blue.
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| Plants | FOOD AND NECTAR PLANTS: Woody legumes are foodplants. Nectar plants are not well known.
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| Comments | COMMENTS: This small blue can be overlooked as an Eastern Tailed-Blue in flight. Its flight, behavior, and habitat are quite similar to that species. However, when perched, the underwing pattern is noticeably different. One of the highlights of 2005 was one carefully seen and described by Dan Williams in the Sandhills region of Richmond County on August 8. Ceraunus Blue was seen at a handful of SC sites in 2012, adding three new counties to that state's list; another county was added to the SC list in 2014, still another was added in 2015, and one was added in 2020. In addition to new counties, observers have been seeing this species in coastal SC on numerous recent occasions, though there is no record as yet for Horry County (which abuts NC). Thus, it is somewhat disappointing that there have not been more coastal reports of this stray in NC than just one old record.
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State Rank | SA | | State Status | |
Global Rank | G5 | | Federal Status | |
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