Satyrium kingi
Size:
Wingspan is 1 - 1 1/4 inches.
Similar Species:
Banded Hairstreak
Edward`s Hairstreak
Hickory Hairstreak
Striped Hairstreak
Habitat:
Longleaf pines and pocosin ecotones. Pine flatwoods and swamp bottomland
margins. Always found near sweet leaf.
Range/Abundance:
Very local in the coastal plain and sandhills. Very rare elsewhere in
the region, not recorded in WV.
Flight Period:
Adults fly from mid May until mid June in a single brood.
Larval Host Plants:
Sweetleaf Symplocos tinctoria
Comments:
This single-brooded hairstreak is hard to find and it can be somewhat
variable. Look for the orange bar over the blue spot on the hindwing.
Look for it nectaring in the tops of Sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum
where Sweetleaf
Symplocos tinctoria is common.
The top and second photos were taken in Moore Co., NC on June 4, 2002. The bottom photo was taken in Weymouth Woods Nature Preserve in Moore Co., NC on June 05, 2004.
