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edevenny Newport News, VA Sep 26, 2005

This thing has been eating the seeds from my hyacinth bean pods. Anyone know what it is?
Liz

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edevenny Newport News, VA Sep 27, 2005

This is actually a caterpillar of an endangered species of silvery blue butterfly! It has not been seen in this part of VA for years and years - I'm so excited - off to call the VCE.
Liz

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Janett_D Gamleby, Sweden(Zone 7a) Sep 27, 2005

googled it and its a beauty. best of luck.
Janett

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prosdokaobasile Mebane, NC(Zone 7b) Nov 08, 2011

I know this post is old and considered solved, but I have updated info on it for people who are not subscribers. I had this caterpillar on my Hyacinth Bean vine also and could not find out exactly what it was on the internet so I put it in a jar with 2 bean pods. Today it hatched from it's chrysalis. It is a Gray Hairstreak Butterfly! It is so cute and beautiful yet small. I would take a picture of mine but it is too wirey so I copied a pic from http://www.tylertexas.info/photos-east-texas-butterflies.htm to show what it looks like. So if anyone else has this "problem", don't worry, my caterpillar only took out two pods out of the MANY that I have. Let it live and be happy! :)

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LadyAshleyR Oakland, MD Nov 09, 2011

do you know which it is? would love to know so i could google the specifics =)

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prosdokaobasile Mebane, NC(Zone 7b) Nov 09, 2011

From what I could tell, it is just 'Gray Hairstreak'. That is what I googled to find which butterfly I had. Here is a good start: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Strymon-melinus. What's funny is I work on caliche roads and when we water the road, thousands of these butterflies cover the road to get a drink of water. Although they are gray, they have a blue undertone which makes them very beautiful! I hope this helps. Have a great day!

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prosdokaobasile Mebane, NC(Zone 7b) Nov 09, 2011

Okay, I am not sure that website works so here is the google search I did:
http://www.google.com/search?q=gray+hairstreak&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Hope this one works :)

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LadyAshleyR Oakland, MD Nov 09, 2011

a silvery blue and a hairstreak are very different butterflies.
here is a photo containing several different blues, including a silvery blue. i assume the O.P. meant a subspecies that is endangered in their area, I was just curious about it.
http://www.insectsofiowa.com/butterflies/lycaenidae_polyommatinae.htm

vs some photos of several species of hairstreaks.
http://www.insectsofiowa.com/butterflies/lycaenidae_theclinae.htm




This message was edited Nov 9, 2011 6:15 PM

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