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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