Hairstreak Butterflies from Belize

Folks,

Getting to the really hard butterflies! These are hairstreak butterflies and there is so many to choose from in Central America. Note none of these butterflies are as big as a nickle.

I'll start first with a hairstreak that is considered rare by the books I have. No place we looked had  an actual live photo of it, just pinned specimens. This is one reason we do this!

The Ambrax Hairstreak, Strephonota ambrax In flight it displays a brilliant blue. We found it
next to the Xunantunich Mayan ruins in Belize!
 

Here is a tiny confusing Butler's Midistreak  also called the Crolinus Hairstreak good thing the scientific name is the same Tmolus crolinus  It was found along the trail at Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve in Belize. The flower reminds me of Heal all. Below is a photo of what it looks like from above, the photo indicated it is a female.

The Pale Ministreak, Ministrymon una these are considered rare too.  I found this little butterfly near the Belize Airport just before we had the depart Belize....

Here is another one with several common names. Some call it the Togarna Hairstreak and others call it the Chiapas Stripestreak, the scientific name is  Arawacus togarna. Roger showed me a killer photo of this and said I missed three of them. Later I took a walk further into Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve and found three of my own in three levels of wear, this was the freshest one I saw.

Here is another rare hairstreak, the field guide had only a pinned specimen photo! The Heraldica Hairstreak, Nicolaea heraldica

That is all the photos of the hairstreaks I saw. Roger got two more a Oppia Hairstreak, Thereus oppia and the Red-spotted Hairstreak, Tmolus echion echiolus below.

We suspected seeing the Dusky-blue Groundstreak several times but never got a good look at it, I have seen this in southern Texas many times.

Above is an Ceraunus Blue, Hemiargus ceraunus which is common in Florida and we saw it lots of places in Belize. The most common blue we saw in Belize was the Eastern-tailed Blue which is plentiful in my North Carolina backyard during the summer.

A tiny note from our garden. It looks like we have 2 yellow crocus ready to bloom, I'll check in the morning.