- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A gray butterfly and a fruit fly...
Each has "fly" in its name but one is a member of the order Lepidoptera and the other, order Diptera. Etymology does not agree with entomology.
Ever managed to photograph a butterfly and fruit fly in the same image?
Presenting: a gray hairstreak butterfly, Strymon melinus, and a fruit fly, Neotephritis finalis, an organism commonly known as "the sunflower seed maggot."
They were foraging March 21 in a Vacaville garden on Coreopsis, a genus of flowering...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Where are the monarch butterflies? They're MIA on the four species of milkweed in our Vacaville pollinator garden
But milkweed attracts other insects, including honey bees, carpenter bees, bumble bees, assassin bugs, syrphid flies, leafcutter bees, Anthophora (genus) bees, wasps, praying mantids, and butterflies, including Gulf Fritillaries, Agraulis vanillae, and gray hairstreaks, Strymon melinus. And yes, arthropods such as crab spiders and orbweavers visit, too.
On Sept. 19, we witnessed a gray hairstreak laying eggs on the buds of a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, which we planted in a container with another milkweed,...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Gotta love that Gray Hairstreak.
If you don't like putting "gray" and "hair" in the same sentence, not to worry.
This is the butterfly, Strymon melinus.
When the it's hanging around a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, the orange spots on its tail accent the color of the flower.
"Adults visit an immense variety of flowers, both wild and cultivated," writes Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology on his website. "They are particularly addicted to Heliotrope and...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Seen any gray hairstreaks, lately?
No, not on someone's head.
This is the butterfly, Strymon melinus, from the Lycaenidae family, known as the gossamer-winged butterflies.
It's an ashy gray butterfly with a white border. You'll also see orange spots on the ends of its hindwings and one on its head, in between the eyes.
One's been hanging around our fava beans, and what a welcome sight.
UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro of the Department of Evolution and Ecology says on his website:
"This is one of the...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's delightful to see the gray hairstreak.
We're not talking about the gray streaks in our hair as we age (to perfection, of course!).
We're talking about the gray hairstreak, a common gray butterfly found throughout the United States, coast to coast, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. Entomologists describe Strymon melinus as a small gray butterfly with a wingspan of from 2.6 to 3.65 centimeters. It is distinguished by its black-eyed orange spot at the base of its hindwing tails. It also has a small patch of blue before the tail, and two broken crossbands of black and white spots.
You may have seen it nectaring on a variety of plants. Indeed, it's considered one of the...