Gray hairstreak butterfly on antelope-horns milkweed

Another visitor to an antelope-horns milkweed flower, Asclepias asperula, along the Smith Memorial Trail in northwest Austin on April 29th was this little butterfly. It appears to be a gray hairstreak, Strymon melinus. Notice that at a hairstreak’s rear there are false antennae that typically move up and down when the insect is nectaring and can mislead a predator into striking at the insect’s rear rather than at its head. A butterfly can live with a chomp taken out of the rear of its wings, but can’t live with a missing head. A similar thing could be said of people, tales of a headless horseman notwithstanding.

© 2014 Steven Schwartzman