David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital Video Images
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Butterflies 92 – Purple Hairstreaks
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (m)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE
HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
PURPLE HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY Favonius quercus (f)
·
The first image of a perfect, recently emerged male
Purple Hairstreak Favonius quercus was
taken on transparency film using flash. It shows the extent of the reflective
purple scales, more visible to our eyes from some angles than others, and
dependent on the direction of the incidental light, that cover most of the surface
of the upperside apart from the dark wing margins.
The upperwings of females are predominantly brown,
but with areas of purple scales visible on the forewings only. Their
distribution is most clearly illustrated in the tenth photograph (right
forewing). The author has not been able to photograph a basking fresh male ever
since, and in the interim, this species has been described by three scientific (generic)
names! It is a common misconception that one needs to look up to the treetops to
see these common little butterflies. In fact, they are often to be found at
lower altitude, when they descend to feed on Bramble Rubus fruticosus agg. blossom
or to seek out salts (usually) in wet mud, and particularly so in hot weather. They
will also feed on sweet, aphid-secreted honeydew coating the upper surface of leaves.
Purple Hairstreaks seem to become tatty rather quickly, often tearing their
wings or losing scales. This is quite possibly because they present such conspicuous
targets for insectivorous birds as they fly up in the canopy of Oak Quercus
spp. trees. These butterflies may be very numerous in favourable
conditions.
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Butterflies 1,
2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
8, 9,
10, 11,
12, 13,
14, 15,
16, 17,
18, 19,
20, 21,
22, 23,
24, 25,
26, 27,
28, 29,
30, 31,
32, 33,
34, 35, 36, 37,
38, 39,
40, 41,
42, 43,
44, 45,
46, 47,
48, 49,
50, 51,
52, 53,
54, 55,
56, 57,
58, 59,
60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66,
67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83,
84,
85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120
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