Azuré printanier
Celastrina ladon
Papillon
Petit papillon bleu de début de saison (Lycaenidae) parmi les premiers à apparaître au printemps dans une grande partie de l'Amérique du Nord. Contrairement à la plupart des papillons, les larves se nourrissent de bourgeons floraux, de fleurs et de fruits en développement plutôt que de feuilles, les attirant vers des arbustes et de petits arbres, notamment le cornouiller (Cornus), la viorne (Viburnum), le céanothe de New Jersey et autres Ceanothus, le bleuet (Vaccinium) et la spirée (Spiraea). Les chenilles aux stades avancés sont entretenues par des fourmis, qui récoltent une sécrétion sucrée d'une glande sur la larve en échange de protection contre les guêpes et mouches parasitoïdes.
Conservation
Répandu et commun dans toute son aire de répartition ; non formellement menacé. À noter que « Celastrina ladon » est taxonomiquement instable - plusieurs anciennes sous-espèces (lucia, neglecta, echo, et d'autres) sont désormais souvent traitées comme des espèces à part entière, de sorte que le nom désigne un complexe d'azurés étroitement apparentés plutôt qu'une lignée bien définie.
Plan pour cette espèce
Ensemble de plantes adaptées à Chicago, IL : d'abord les plantes hôtes et spécialistes, puis les plantes à nectar, fruits, graines, feuillage et abri qui restent compatibles avec la lecture climatique actuelle et du milieu du siècle.
6 relations essentielles / 0 plantes de soutien
Liens hôte/spécialiste : 6
Liens fourrage/pollinisation : 0
Liens abri : 0
Rôles de relation : 1
Viorne dentée
Essentielle / Plantes hôtes des larves
Viorne à feuilles de prunier
Essentielle / Plantes hôtes des larves
Cornouiller de Floride
Essentielle / Plantes hôtes des larves
Cornouiller à grappes
Essentielle / Plantes hôtes des larves
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center lists gray dogwood as a larval host for the spring azure (Celastrina ladon), and this is the relationship that raises the plant above ordinary bird-food status. Spring azure larvae feed on flower buds and developing flowers rather than leaves, which is why the host list for this butterfly is a list of shrubs that flower in late spring - dogwoods, viburnums, New Jersey tea, black cherry. A hedgerow that carries gray dogwood is carrying the food plant for one of the earliest butterflies on the wing in eastern North America.
Myrtille à grandes feuilles
Essentielle / Plantes hôtes des larves
The Spring Azure record documents blueberry (Vaccinium) among its host shrubs, with larvae feeding on buds, blossoms, and developing fruit; highbush blueberry is Vaccinium corymbosum.
Viorne à feuilles d'érable
Essentielle / Plantes hôtes des larves
Both the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and Wikipedia name mapleleaf viburnum as a larval host for the spring azure (Celastrina ladon), and this is the single strongest ecological argument for the plant. Spring azure larvae feed on flower buds and developing flowers rather than foliage, which is why the host list for this butterfly is a list of late-spring-flowering woody plants - viburnums, dogwoods, New Jersey tea, black cherry. A shaded bed that most gardeners write off as dead ground can carry the food plant for one of the earliest butterflies on the wing in eastern North America.
Plantes du catalogue
Plantes hôtes des larves · 20
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center lists gray dogwood as a larval host for the spring azure (Celastrina ladon), and this is the relationship that raises the plant above ordinary bird-food status. Spring azure larvae feed on flower buds and developing flowers rather than leaves, which is why the host list for this butterfly is a list of shrubs that flower in late spring - dogwoods, viburnums, New Jersey tea, black cherry. A hedgerow that carries gray dogwood is carrying the food plant for one of the earliest butterflies on the wing in eastern North America.
The Spring Azure record documents blueberry (Vaccinium) among its host shrubs, with larvae feeding on buds, blossoms, and developing fruit; highbush blueberry is Vaccinium corymbosum.
Both the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and Wikipedia name mapleleaf viburnum as a larval host for the spring azure (Celastrina ladon), and this is the single strongest ecological argument for the plant. Spring azure larvae feed on flower buds and developing flowers rather than foliage, which is why the host list for this butterfly is a list of late-spring-flowering woody plants - viburnums, dogwoods, New Jersey tea, black cherry. A shaded bed that most gardeners write off as dead ground can carry the food plant for one of the earliest butterflies on the wing in eastern North America.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center names nannyberry as a larval host for the spring azure (Celastrina ladon), and this is what lifts the plant above ordinary bird-food status. Spring azure larvae feed on flower buds and developing flowers rather than leaves, which is why the host list for this butterfly reads as a list of late-spring-flowering shrubs. A May-blooming viburnum is on that list by construction.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center names the spring azure as the larval host relationship on this species, and it is the most specific wildlife fact in the record. Spring azure larvae feed on flower buds and developing flowers rather than on leaves, which means the resource IS the bloom - a plant sheared or pruned out of flower is a plant that has stopped being a host. The azure flies early, so the May-into-June cyme lands in the right window. Note that this catalog also carries the Appalachian azure, a closely related species that hosts on black cohosh instead; the two are near-identical on the wing and it is the host plant, not the butterfly, that tells them apart.
Wikipedia records Viburnum nudum as a larval host for spring azures. Spring azure larvae feed on flower buds and developing flowers rather than mature leaves, which is why their host list is a list of late-spring-flowering shrubs, and it means the May to June bloom is doing double duty as nectar for adults and as food for the next generation. This is the relationship that lifts the shrub above ordinary bird-food value.
The Spring Azure record documents dogwoods (Cornus) among its flower-bud, blossom, and developing-fruit host shrubs; red-osier dogwood is Cornus sericea and carries the same early shrub-flower host pathway.
Cornus is a principal larval host for the spring azure complex, and the caterpillars feed on the FLOWER BUDS and developing flowers rather than the leaves, which is why an azure population tracks whether a dogwood stand blooms rather than how much foliage it carries. A practical consequence: hard coppicing the whole clump in one go removes the bloom for a season and takes the host resource with it, so renewal-prune a third of the stems at a time instead.
The Wildflower Center records trumpet honeysuckle as a larval host for the spring azure, which is a real and specific value the invasive bush honeysuckles do not offer. Worth knowing how azure larvae feed: they eat flower buds, blossoms and developing fruit rather than leaves, so caterpillar damage here shows up as chewed flower clusters rather than skeletonised foliage, and it is not a reason to spray. Note that Celastrina ladon covers a complex of closely related azures rather than one tidy species.
Plantes à nectar · 1
The spring azure flies in early spring as moss phlox blooms, and phlox is an early nectar source for the season's first small butterflies - a timing match rather than a host-specific citation for C. ladon.
Répartition
Largement distribué dans toute l'Amérique du Nord, du Canada vers le sud à travers la majeure partie des États-Unis, selon le traitement taxonomique du complexe des azurés.
Sources et citations
Citer cette page
Utilisez cette citation pour la fiche faune Plotwright. Utilisez les fiches de sources ci-dessous pour explorer les références ayant alimenté sa taxonomie, sa répartition, sa conservation, ses plantes hôtes, son alimentation et son habitat.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Azuré printanier (Celastrina ladon). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/wildlife/spring-azure
Sources utilisées pour cette fiche
Cette fiche est élaborée à partir des sources ci-dessous.
BAMONA: Spring azure
Species profile for range, early flight, shrub/tree flower-bud hosts, and adult nectar use.
MDC Field Guide: Spring azure
State agency species account used for identification detail, larval and adult food, and life-cycle timing. Missouri-scoped, so it is not cited for continental range.
Wikipedia: Celastrina ladon
Corroborating reference for NatureServe rank, azure taxonomy complexity, larval feeding on buds/flowers/fruit, and ant-tended larvae.
GBIF: Celastrina ladon
GBIF backbone matches the species Celastrina ladon exactly as an accepted taxon (key 1925922).
iNaturalist: Celastrina ladon
iNaturalist matches the species Celastrina ladon exactly (taxon 58556).