Rise of the Purple Hairstreaks - Butterfly Life Cycle

The Great Purple Hairstreak Butterfly (Altides halesus) is widely distributed in the southern and western United States, but is considered a rare butterfly in most places, and is seldom seen by most people. The larvae feed on various species of Mistletoe. The adult butterflies rarely open their wings, except to take flight, and usually appear as dark charcoal/black-colored when at rest with their wings over their backs. The only time to see the amazing irridescent top side of a living Purple Hairstreak is when they first emerge from the chrysalis and expand their wings.

Just like the more famous Morpho Butterflies of South America, the irridescent scales appear to change color as the light refracts from them at different angles, breaking the wavelengths up into specific frequencies, just like a prism. The freshly emerged adults appear to be bright metallic green for the first few seconds, then change color to a more aqua-blue or purple as the scales change their shape and angle during wing expansion.

The sexes are dimorphic, with the smaller males being a deep metallic blue-green, while the slightly larger females are a less reflective powder blue color.

Description and timeline of events show:
* Eggs - (the little white blobs) shown at a distance for scale, and up close for detail, hatch in about 10 days;
* Hatching - tiny, fuzzy 1st instar larva chewing it's way out of the egg, 30 minutes;
* Larvae - 5 phases, called "instars", with a skin molting in between each, 3-4 weeks total;
* Pre-pupation - the mature larva secures itself to a surface and prepares to pupate (2 days)
* Pupation - the pre-pupa larva molts its skin, becoming a pupa (about 10 minutes);
* Hardening - the pupal shell hardens to semi-rigid shell in a few hours;
* Metamorphosis - the adult develops in the pupal shell (about 2-3 weeks);
* Emerging - the fully developed adult cracks-open the shell and crawls free;
* Wing expansion - the adult pumps fluid into the wing vein structure, expanding them (10 minutes).
* Wing "drying" - the fluid in the wings dries, making them rigid enough to fly with (2-3 hours).

Detailed documentary at JCMDI.COM: http://lepidoptera.jcmdi.com/b/lyc/corcorani/corcoranir.html

Much more butterfly and moth life cycle documentary is available, free to the public at lepidoptera.jcmdi.com.

The music is "Newton's Prizm" from the "TimeShift" CD by Technician (yours truly), album and single available on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/timeshift/id416810514 full artist discography and CDs available at HTTP://technician.jcmdi.com

Enjoy the show!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Great
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• Hairstreak
• Altides
• halesus
• corcorani
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• lapse
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• hatching
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• irridesence
• irridescent
• scales
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[reliablebow]

so beautiful...rise indeed.....

[jcmegabyte]

@reliablebow Thanks so much for the view and nice comment =) Cheers!

[geoff1945]

This is beautiful photography and the description is a work of art in itself. I like the way you brought this to my notice, friend.

[jcmegabyte]

@geoff1945 I'm happy you enjoyed this one - thanks so much for the view and kind words! =)

[meowey55]

those are beautiful butterflies I bet you enjoy raising each butterfly

[jcmegabyte]

Most of my rearing projects are pretty interesting and enjoyable but this one was particularly so :-) Thanks so much for stopping by!

[mythtree]

Thank you for revisiting my childhood with new vision. There were many of these when I was growing up flitting among the lupine and poppies. They frequented by grandparents place; half the yard was garden, the other overgrown with grapes, trees, & a compost heap! Grandpa warned me someday they'd be rare to see, as he watched a great Condor fell swoop from a tree - I was so lucky to love these things! Lastly I saw a mission blue near Pacifica. I miss the bay, & the good golden days...Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[dhog41]

Always loved nature documentaries, myself. The images you've taken are certainly worthy of that :::smiles:::

[JcmdiStockFootage]

@dhog41 I'm glad you're enjoying my work =) Thanks so much for the views, nice comments and subscriptions too!

[dhog41]

Fascinating life cycle. Gorgeous transformation. Nature is an amazing thing...

[JcmdiStockFootage]

@aFanLikeU I always enjoyed National Geographic-type shows for just those reasons... and it's nice to able to contribute such material in my own little ways =) Glad you enjoyed it too - thanks a bunch for the view and nice comment!

[aFanLikeU]

This is very lovely to watch aside from being very informative in itself. It's nice to sometime just stop and cherish the moment watching nature unfolds. Thanks for making that possible for busy people like me..

[angelwz73]

Very awesome video. Nature and birds are among my many interests too.

[TechnicianMusic]

@58MR19 I'm glad you enjoyed this one - it took a lot of work and time to complete :-) Thanks so much for all your views and kind words! Cheers!

[58MR19]

Beautiful and very interesting video.