Green Hairstreak

[Overread]

A Green ~Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi)

 

[JacaRanda]

A beaut!

 

[Overread]

My thanks Jaca - I was lucky to get it from this side, sun lit, in the shade the wing looks very pale green, so akin to the bush it was on that one wouldn't notice it at all without looking hard

 

[123rfanna]

The wings are really pretty!

 

[Overread]

That they are, and yet if you see them when shaded they are dull green and very common - the sun though really brings out the shine!

 

[bribrius]

pretty. Something does seem odd with it though, not sure if it was the processing or something but the wings have a flaky look to them. Is that how they actually look or is it a processing thing? File compression? Granted you have to look at it closer to notice.

 

[Overread]

I see what you mean and I think its more that the shot is close enough and the light falling such as the segments which make up the wing are showing much more clearly as segments rather than as a uniform surface with a pattern upon it. I suspect the reflective "shiny" nature of these ones makes them stand out more (some age in the butterfly might also mean some segments are missing/damaged which might account for "gaps" over hte surface though I can't be 100% sure if this happens within the wing - I know it certainly happens on the edges and frayed wings is something one will oft see, esp later in the season when older butterflies are all that is left)

 

[Derrel]

It is an interesting butterfly. I was watching a National Geographic Society short film last week, The Hidden World, and they showed electron microscope images of a beautiful blue-winged butterfly--and at high magnification, the entire blue wing surface looked like a cedar shake roof!!!! Millions of segmented sections, layed down almost like, well...roof shingles, but with some gaps to the "segments". Each segment must have been made up by, oh, I don't know, maybe 200 to 500 tiny,tiny 'shingles'...it was a mind-blower!!!

 

[DarkShadow]

I never seen colors like this.Nice Shot.

 

[MikealH]

Striking