Glad you guys are enjoying the photos! Feel free to come spend your tourist dollars here!
Jack, yes the Atala is in the Hairstreak family but it is definitely a more tropical species. They only live (naturally) in South Florida. The ones at MOSI stopped breeding last year around October. I think they really like it hot! As far as color, they are similar to the Great Purple Hairstreak, but not as large. We ordered them from a butterfly farm as a special treat.
But they're still bigger than Blues! Margaret, that's so cool and thanks for representing the West Coast! It's also rare for me to see any Blue with its wings open because there's not much of a need to bask here.
It's so darn hot, I went to the movies today. I'm still resting up for the Orchid Walk on Saturday. It's sold out with a group of twenty people. I'm going to have to get up so early to get to Orlando! Mom's driving; I'll make us a strong pot of tea for our travel mugs! I'm looking forward to taking lots of bird and butterfly pictures, too. When I was there in January, I took photos of fifteen kinds of butterflies. In January!
