butterfly ID ?

Bethsull919 at aol.com Bethsull919 at aol.com
Wed Jul 9 20:07:11 EDT 2003


Ok..here's one for all you lep-ers that are more exprienced than I am.
I was walking the dog last Sunday and spotted a small (small hairstreak/Azure 
size) nearly black butterfly on the road. It rested with wings closed with 
the  shape of a hairstreak/elfin  Ruled out skippers and duskywings, body slim, 
not chunky.
I nabbed it with one hand...(Leash in other) and on examination, knew I had 
never seen it before. A quick flick to look inside wings did not let me see 
well, but I could not discern any pattern/spots/bands or even gradations of 
color..looked uniformly very dark. Both inside and outside seemed equally dark. 
Examination of underside wings showed scalloped edge along hind wing and possibly 
small tails..like hairstreaks. The big surprise was that the markings on that 
hind underwing, which were like the zig zag patterns of hairstreaks..seemed 
to look almost teal blue!  Not the usual white/black pattern. I did not notice 
any of the orange spots typical of hairstreaks..and as I tried to get a better 
look inside...the dog..still on hand..decided she wanted to swim and pulled 
me hard and I lost the butterfly!
       I have Checked Peterson's, Audubon and Glassberg..and am not at all 
sure of what I had.  A dark color phase of something like a banded hairstreak??  
Any ideas?
Went back a couple of times and never saw it again. Habitat: Mixed deciduous 
with nice pine grove..near reservoir/brook.  I don't have a clue!!   Thanks 
Beth Sullivan
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