Spring azure butterfly Celastrina ladon photograph

The spring azure butterfly is found commonly in all of Ohio's eighty-eight counties. It is a member of the Lycaenidae (gossamer winged) butterflies, and prefers to live in forests and the areas immediately surrounding them between March and September. This species has a wingspan of 1.1 to 1.3 inches (2.8 to 3.3 cm). In Ohio there are more than 150 species of butterflies. Twenty-seven different species of butterflies representing five families can be found in the Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook, including all seven species of butterflies that are listed as endangered in Ohio. Butterflies are a part of the order Lepidoptera (from the Greek words lepis, which means scale and pteron, which means wing). There are nearly 17,500 species of butterflies world-wide. Approximately 750 of these can be found in North America