Portrait of a Gray Hairstreak Baby Onesie

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Gray Hairstreak butterfly, Strymon melinus, with texture. mp to: navigation, search
Gray Hairstreak
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Strymon
Species: S. melinus
Binomial name
Strymon melinus
The Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), is one of the most common hairstreaks in North America, ranging over nearly the entire continent. It occurs also throughout Central America and in northern South America.
These butterflies are not much larger than your thumbnail, and that depends on big your thumbnail is. I never knew how beautiful these butterflies were until I captured them with my macro lens. This image has a beautiful orange/yellow texture background, which sets off this tiny creature.

I have been involved in creative works for years. Watercolors, oils, jewelry creation, and writing. Some years ago, after undergoing treatment for breast cancer, I abandoned my partly written novel and bought my first serious camera, a Nikon, believing life is too short not to do something that gives me pleasure. Although writing was stimulating and fun, I longed to do something that got me out of the house and into nature. Within months, I abandoned film and went to a Nikon digital camera. Recently, I went to a new system with Fuji. I now shoot an X-T2. My love for the creative process, nature and the animals that live in nature influences my work, although I have branched out in many areas of photography besides...