Subject: Moth? Butterfly? What is this blue lovely?
Geographic location of the bug: Benbrook, TX, USA (DFW area)
Date: 11/26/2017
Time: 06:23 PM EDT
This beautiful butterfly/moth was on our front porch when we got home today. Posted it to facebook and no answers yet. I thought it was a moth because I’ve never seen a butterfly with it’s wings folded like that. My mom thinks it’s a butterfly because the antennae are not fuzzy. What is it? It’s still outside several hours later. Pretty little critter! Thanks!
How you want your letter signed: Shara
Dear Shara,
We are very excited to post your lovely image of a Great Purple Hairstreak, a Gossamer Winged Butterfly. Though we have several images in our archives of this species, we have either images showing the closed wings, or we have images of recently emerged individuals with wings not yet fully expanded. We suspect your individual has also recently emerged from a pupa, and it was perhaps not quite ready to fly when your encounter occurred.
Thank you for the response! This is sad though. It must have let us so close to take pictures because it was already dead. It was upside down on the rug today when I returned home (It was windy outside) Still beautiful, but a small chip is missing from the wing and the antennae fell off 🙁 Sad to think that it had just recently emerged and died so soon. I’ve brought it inside for now.