I say new butterfly, but for all I know, it’s been here for ages. Yesterday evening was the first time I’d noticed it, though, so it was new to me. I was swimming with Eric and noticed a small butterfly, blue-sized (i.e., tiny), perched for a long time on a flower near the edge. It stayed put long enough for me to step inside and get the camera and, for a wonder, it even stayed put while I crawled on my belly to get a detail shot. If only all butterflies—and any bird—were this easy to photograph!
With such a cooperative lepidopteran, I’m pretty confident I’ve captured enough of the field marks to ascertain the ID: Strymon istapa (formerly columella), the Mallow scrub-hairstreak. Here’s another shot, just to be sure:
The flower is one of those weedy invasive exotics; I’m not sure which one, though.
According to Glassberg, Minno, and Calhoun (2000), there are about 60 species of scrub-hairstreaks (genus Strymon), all restricted to the New World. They describe it as a “small, relatively inconspicuous hairstreak”; it can be differentiated from the Gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus, found nearly continent-wide, which is why it’s their reference species for size, at 10/16 inch) by the presence of the two basal black spots on the HW, and from Ceraunus Blue (Hemiargus ceraunus) by the presence of tails.
It sure is a pretty little thing, though.
If you’re interested, here is an article summarizing why this butterfly is now known as S. istapa instead of S. columella.