Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Small-fry Butterflies

Late summer is upon us and butterflies of all sizes abound in the fields and along the roadsides.  Last week I blogged photos of Monarchs and Swallowtails which are virtual giants compared to the three shown in this post. 

Not lastly, and not leastly, here is a Least Skipper, owning a wing breadth of barely one-half inch….and an attached drinking straw!

Aug 15 Least Skipper cropped Next, we have the actually quite pretty mini-butterfly named Eastern Tailed Blue:

Aug 3 (1) Eastern Tailed Blue (female) Lastly, meet Gray Hairstreak, who appears to be decorated with orange and black threads.  (Notice, too, the striped antennae in all three of these photos.)  

Aug 15 Gray Hairstreak Who gave butterflies their names?  Does anyone know? 

4 comments:

Trisha said...

Nice pictures of the tiny, flying jewels!

Nancy Grossi ~ Churned In Cali ~ The Wife of a Dairyman said...

Wow! You've captured some great shots! I just love butterflies, next spring I plan on planting more butterfly friendly flowers around my home:)

DesertHen said...

Lovely shots and so full of detail! I am clueless when it comes to butterfly names!

Gail said...

Beautiful photographs.