When I arrived I was happy to find my butterfly friends guarding crotons and keeping an eye on the hairstreaks so picking up my life butterflies was a piece of cake. First came the Telea Hairstreak. What a tiny beautiful emerald!
And then it was the Vicroy's Ministreak. This was previously thought of as a green eyed Gray Minstreak but was recently described as a new species. Another tiny gem!
A Ruddy type hairstreak had also been found. This one did not flash orange so we can't be sure if it's a female Ruddy (most likely) or a Muted (very rare).
And then another Strophius Hairstreak. We had one just last month.
So that makes four pretty rare hairstreaks. And then there were the more common ones, like this fabulous Great Purple Hairstreak.
And another green one, Silver-banded Hairstreak.
And the not-so-striking Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.
And a sharp winter form Clytie Ministreak.
The very common Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak in its winter form.
And two for the price of one, Gray Hairstreak and Dusky-blue Groundstreak.
Yesterday's Gray Ministreak could not be found but we still finished with an amazing eleven species of hairstreaks. That will be a tough record to break. But it will be fun trying.
