Elfin identified... I think

May 11, 2015  •  Leave a Comment

Mystery hairstreakMystery hairstreak

I went back to the Bell Cedar Swamp refuge in the early afternoon to try to spot more odonates, but, except for one quick fly-by of something akin to a dragonfly, the skies were free of most insects save gnats and the first mosquitoes. The trek was not, however, in vain—OK, no hike is really ever in vain—for in the graveyard on a bed of Hair-cap Moss, I spotted a minuscule butterfly, the likes of which I'd never seen before. I'm currently on the lookout for those perhaps-mythical members of the Hessel's Hairstreak clan, the lepidopterans that a UConn biologist friend has me searching for in the cedar swamp area, and when I got home and looked at the image, I thought that I might have finally gotten lucky. I haven't heard from my contact, but after quite a bit of study, I ruled out a Hessel's. I'm pretty sure that this is instead an Eastern Pine Elfin, an early flying and not all that common mini-butterfly—elfin, indeed—whose caterpillars feed on pine needles. Given the abundance of White Pines in the area, I'd clearly come to the right place for the species.


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