Purple hairstreak butterfly

Purple hairstreak Butterfly

The purple hairstreak is a butterfly that relies on both native and non-native oaks. Find out where to spot them, what they eat, how they breed and much more.

This handsome butterfly is widely distributed throughout southern areas wherever there are oak trees; even a solitary tree may support a colony. It is frequently overlooked as adults remain largely in the canopy where the main adult food source is honeydew; they fly more commonly in the evening of a warm summer's day. They are only driven down to seek fluid and nectar during prolonged drought, as occurred in 1995-6.

Purple Hairstreak Butterfly, Favonius quercus: pictures, habitat, lifecycle, food plants, distribution, identification

Travel expert Debra Schroeder's adventures in trying a Butterfly pee (Butterfly pea flower) drink in Bangkok, Thailand.

Atlides halesus. This is a very unusual butterfly with an oddly inappropriate name. "Great" is out of keeping with its small size, 2-2.5 cm. It is larger than most other hairstreaks, however. "Purple" is also not a word I would choose for this color. As with all hairstreaks, the hindwing appendages mimic antennae and thus mislead predators. The butterfly usually keeps to the shadows and thus can be hard to see. I was lucky to find this one in good light. Photo near Onion Creek…

Atlides Halesus(Great Purple Hairstreak) -Male -Florida, USA -(1.25 in wingspan). Contrary to its common name this butterfly is Blue NOT Purple. Mistletoe is the only host plant for this butterfly.

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Great Purple Hairstreak Atlides halesus (Cramer, 1777) | Butterflies and Moths of North America