Observation date: July 19, 2024
Submitted by: Robert Gorman
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: In the closed wing shot the antenna remind me of watching a spider trying to keep a hold on a common Ringlet Smart to ward off the attack. I watched a hermes copper get stabbed by a buckwheat assisan bug that is all white and blends in perfectly I took a short film of the bug and the butterfly it killed. It was the second one that I saw that day that took a hermes. I guess they had not been declared Endangered yet? As bugs could read ha ha. There world is eat or be eaten Like hiking in Yellowstone. I felt like a low part of the food chain.
Status: Resident
Verified by: James Steen
Verified date: August 13, 2024
Coordinator notes: This is actually a male of the subspecies Lycaena dorcas castro, so now you've seen L. dorcas. There seems to be confusion as to these being L. helloides or L. dorcus. So the nearest on BAMONA was to list it as L. helloides. I occasionally have found assassin, are they ambush bugs?, in my yard. Maybe a bad thing but I kill them as it seems just too much like a murderous thief when they get a butterfly in my perennials, especially butterfly weed. Thanks, JAMES STEEN
