bwhiteley's Favorites

One of Ohio’s rarest orchids and about the only known extant plant/site. Not the quality of photo I’m used to taking but time was short and lighting horribly wrong. Not to mention this species is a pain to photograph well in situ many times. Fun to finally see in my home state after experiences in Michigan and Ontario over the years.

Gray Hairstreak submitted as: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38672474

In these photos a Gray Hairstreak had been nectaring on the flower
when a Common Eastern Bumble Bee landed and tried to muscle its way in. In the first image you can see the bee raising a leg towards the butterfly. In the second image you can see the butterfly exposing its spots in what appears to be an attempt to scare off the bee. In this case the bee ended up taking over the flower. However, I watched a similar event a few moments later in which the hairstreak held its ground and the invading bee gave up and took flight.

This orchid was recently described to science as a new species and can be separated from the similar P. grandiflora in several ways. P. shrveri's lateral sepals and ventral lip exhibit much more laceration and 'fringing'; the isthmus of the lip is extended and longer than P. grandiflora; concave appearance to the lip; more loosely flowered inflorescence; later blooming time (typically).