Only once in my life have I seen this amazing species
AND managed to capture it !
It was pure luck and happenstance that I would be on
vacation with my family during the early spring (break)
which schools have in my region. This is a time when
some families take a trip somewhere or when the
college kids have a brief respite from studies and go
down to florida or the gulf coast to party with friends.
I was on a family trip.... We spent a week in central
Florida of which 3 of those days were Disney-related
as my children were quite young.
On March 29th 2006 we set off to spend the day at Epcot
(one of the 4 diffrent parts) that make up Walt Disney
World. Around noon that day we thought we would take
a brief break, give the kids some light snacks, and snag
a couple guick soda's at the local beverage carts. Lunch
would have to wait a bit as lunch lines were long.
While the wife tended to the kids needs I meandered
over to the local beverage guy and made my purchase
and arrived back. Whilst standing with family sipping
on my pop a quick fluttering movement caught my eye
in the immediate vicinity of my daughters stroller. As
luck would have it -- there sitting on the overhead shroud
of her stroller was a thumb-sized hairstreak casually
moving its hindwings (back and forth).
I said to my wife "don't make a move". I'm not sure what
species it is and I sure don't have one ! She said go over to
that trash can and find an empty cup. I did and then a quick
rinse of water and a napkin dry and my container was set.
Fortunately, it came with a lid !
The little hairstreak maintained its station with all this
going's-on and I managed to catch it --- stealthily.
I would wind-up carrying my capture the rest of that day
in the storage section of the stroller. I really didn't have
any serious hopes of getting it truly (intact) once back at
our room but, something was better than nothing and I
knew I didn't have whatever it was. I quickly dispatched
it with my kill bottle once we arrived and papered it.
To my absolute amazement those long ribbon-like tails
remained intact and the specimen appeared ex-pupae.
Once home, I relaxed it and spread it with surprising ease.
A quick search of my literatue helped confirm that I had
ACTUALLY captured this seldom encountered species -- a
female.
What a day --- for more reasons than one....
