Eastern Tailed-Blue

It looks bluer in person than in the photos and the male is solid blue on top of wings, while the female is solid brown on top. This one is my first “blue” this year, I think. I found him on the yellow ground-cover flowers on my side of the driveway slope, where I have to use my walking stick (trekking pole) and good sports sandals or hiking shoes to hold me on the very steep slope while photographing. 🙂 Some species only go to certain flowers when available, so maybe I will start checking these flowers more often. 🙂 We are entering the “fewer butterflies season” for my garden until it picks up again next April/May, though there are some butterflies year around, just like the birds! See more photos of this species in my GALLERY: Eastern Tailed-Blue (including some blue tops). You will find more of these in the Eastern half of the U.S. and Canada than here, but this “northern butterfly” does range as far south as Costa Rica. We get them from both North & South America! 🙂 Here’s two shots from an October sighting . . .

Eastern Tailed-Blue, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Eastern Tailed-Blue

Not real common, though I’ve seen at least 3 other times in my garden, the Eastern Tailed-Blue, Cupido comyntas (linked to my gallery) has before been almost totally blue on top with less brown than this one, but with research, I’m confident that this set of photos is properly identified, even though Ceraunus Blue has more brown like this, it has a totally different set of black dots. Plus one article says that females are more brown, so maybe this is a female! 🙂 And all photos are of the same individual. Plus, interestingly, every time I’ve seen this species, it has been in grasses and never yet on a flower. 🙂 Here’s 3 photos . . .

Eastern Tailed-Blue, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Eastern Tailed-Blue

This Eastern Tailed-Blue (Cupido comyntas) is a cousin of the Ceraunus Blue (linked to blog post) I shared a few days ago, another sub-family in the Gossamer Wings or Lycaenidae Family (linked to that group of galleries) of butterflies and another one of those very tiny ones, as noted by him being on a blade of grass in these photos. :-) Most in the Lycaenidae Family are tiny. Also he’s called a “blue” because the top of his wings are a powdery blue, though barely seen in just one of these photos. Because of the wind this time of year he keeps wings folded when landed, but you can see my photo of another one with open wings in my Eastern Tailed-Blue GALLERY where all the photos have come from my garden. 🙂 And also note that with my eyes he looks white, but the light and/or camera give him a brownish hue this time that I cannot explain.

Eastern Tailed-Blue, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Eastern Tailed-Blue

Another interesting butterfly not often seen, the Eastern Tailed-Blue, Cupido comyntas, in my garden. I have seen him once before in my garden as shown in my Eastern Tailed-Blue GALLERY.

Eastern Tailed-Blue, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Eastern Tailed-Blue

This is another new butterfly species for me! And in my own gardens! 🙂  Eastern Tailed-Blue, Cupido comyntas (linked to butterfliesandmoths website). Like the other blues, it is very tiny, literally “thumbnail sized.” These tiny ones stay mostly in the grass and are very skittish, so I can’t get close-ups, but rather shoot with my telephoto lens and do a pretty big crop to make it visible for the viewer. Like many other butterflies, the top view and folded-wings view are totally different. Below are my shots of both and then you might want to see my gallery of other blues and tiny butterflies like Hairstreaks in my
Lycaenidae – GOSSAMER-WINGS Gallery.

Eastern Tailed-Blue, Atenas, Costa Rica

Eastern Tailed-Blue, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!