Description ²

Rare to, at best, uncommon on Martha's Vineyard, and largely restricted to moist or mesic woodland on the moraine. This species can be confused with northern oak hairstreak and gray hairstreak, which share its pattern of a relatively "clean" underside and a single line across the wings. White-M also has the small white spot near the base of the forewing that appears on oak hairstreak. Despite the possibility for confusion, though, white-M can be recognized reliably by the position of the orange spot near the anal angle of the hindwing: in contrast to all our other hairstreaks with an orange dot in this location, the dot is clearly removed from the margin of the wing in white-M. While you will rarely get a good look at the dorsal surfaces of the wings in this species, they are a bright, electric blue, and this coloration can often be glimpsed on a butterfly in flight. None of our other hairstreaks has dorsal coloration even remotely like this. White-M exhibits three flights on Martha's Vineyard, basically late April into May, July, and late August into early October.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Matt Pelikan, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Matt Pelikan
2. (c) Matt Pelikan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• BugGuide
• Butterflies and Moths of North America
• CUIC Insect Images
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• Maryland Moths
• Mass Moths
• Moth Photographers Group
• Moths of North Carolina
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0

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