Jack, that's one of the Blues, not a Hairstreak.
I was mostly in the car today but we stopped at the old family cemeteries on the way to the conference. I had to climb a hill to get to the first one and it was a steep hill! I've done it twice before, but that was before I got fibro and chronic fatigue. My legs hurt so bad right now and I dread waking up tomorrow. But it's okay because at the second cemetery (which is basically in this guy's backyard) I saw lots of butterflies.
And it's so weird that Tee posted a Comma because I think I was seeing mostly Question Marks today. Now, I have never seen a Question Mark in real life and I've only seen a Comma once in WV. I've looked at books and internet pictures and now that I think I've seen both, I've come to some conclusions. First, the Comma does lack the separate dot. The Question Mark seems to have more "cutouts" in its wings. They're frillier, if you will. Also, the Question Marks looked bigger. Could just be a natural variation, though. Anyway, this guy's yard had tons of them because they were puddling. And they are so skittish! I kept trying to sneak up on them but they look like dead leaves so first I had to distinguish the butterfly from actual dead leaves, and then sneak up on it. Tell me what you think.
Argh! Hotel internet is so slow loading these pictures. I think this is a Red-Banded Hairstreak. I'm going to submit all my pictures to BAMONA because I doubt they get a lot of submissions from this area. But I think I might wait until I get faster internet.
Okay, I saw two kinds of Blues today. I believe the first is a Summer Azure and she might have been laying eggs. I don't know the plants she was on well enough to know if they are what is listed on the BAMONA website. There are some beautiful wildflowers up here!
The other one is blurry (sorry) but I think it is an Eastern Tailed Blue. I've seen lots of those at Grandma's house. They like clover, their host plant as well as a good nectar plant. You can see the top of this Blue is different from the other. At this point, I was ready to get back in the car and sit down.
And I had these hilarious skippers. The male was really trying to get his groove thing on, but she just kept flying around.
