I hope that you enjoy this blog as well as the other areas of the site while enriching your education about arthropods. This blog is going to be an area where I post about insects of interest as well as share fun facts, tidbits, and photos of insects I encounter in beautiful Colorado.



On the forums, this is my avatar, the Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly (Hypaurotis crysalus)  

In 1996, this butterfly became the state insect of Colorado.

The reason I love this insect so much is because it's only the Colorado State insect because a group of 4th graders worked over several years to bring this insect as our state insect. It's a shining example of how educators and students can bring about small changes while learning and working together for a cause. (The lobbying of the 4th graders prevented the honeybee from becoming the state insect at the last minute.)(State Insect of Colorado)

The eggs overwinter and in the spring the caterpillars for this butterfly develop on Gambel oaks while the adults feed mostly on a diet of tree sap, raindrops, and aphid honeydew. (Nearctica) The butterflies have dark purple wings with a broad black or dark border. Each wing has orange spots at the lower outer edge, and each hindwing has a thin hairlike tail. The lower side of the wings is pale to dark gray with white and dark markings, an orange patch on the margin of each forewing, and an orange spot with a black center on the hindwing near the tail. It has a wingspan of 3.1 - 3.8 cm (1.25 to 1.5 in) The adults enjoy one flight per year, roughly between late june to early August, and eggs are laid singly in the twigs of the host oak (Wikipedia).