Smallest hairstreak
May
inkslinger at bellsouth.net
Sat Nov 18 19:06:25 EST 2006
Today I was in the garden with the Bidens alba. It was cool but warm
enough for sulphurs and a few Gulf Fritillaries, skippers to be out.
My eyes followed what I thought was a day flying moth. Tiny thing -
I'd say the entire length of the wing was 3/8" and maybe, spread the
width of a dime. It was basking and it turned out to be some sort of
hairstreak. It had a notch on the hingwing and one little tail was
missing. However, that didn't stop it from wiggling the remaining one.
It was SO tiny. I am out there many times a day because I have a dog
that slips through the fence and I have to be with him. I go out with
my camera in the sun, so I'm observing all the time.
I love hairstreaks. Never get tired of photographing them. But I've
never seen one so small. I went to the house to stalk it more but
it was gone. I really looked carefully for it. Then I'm walking back
to the house, camera on, and I see it land on the trailer in the sun.
My German Shepherd took it upon himself to walk between it and me and it
flew into the wilds of my empty corral. So tomorrow I brave the
wildflower forest in there to beat the bushes, literally and find my
hairstreak.
It looks like it's been painted with a fine hair like an eyelash with a
pretty solid looking red line - but the notch took care of any further
ID. There was a broken blue line, but very faint and very short above
the red.
It was gray. Wings together, I could not get a ventral view, but the
key, I think, as a total amateur, is the size. I was very surprised.
No, I didn't kick old Blade.
May
Bayou George, FL
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