After ten or more months enfolded within a brown, peanut-sized chrysalis beneath leaf litter and snow, the diminutive hoary elfin is among the first butterflies to navigate its maiden flight in spring. On sunny days in May, it flies along trails through rocky, evergreen forest clearings and sandy watersides across most of the country. Typically, it rises only briefly above ground-hugging heath shrubs, its tiny, dark wings fluttering erratically, before disappearing again.
Hoary elfins are low-flying and homebound, rarely venturing far from their larval staple, bearberry, or, less commonly, trailing arbutus, both creeping broadleaf evergreen shrubs. The butterflies also sip from and pollinate both shrubs’ flowers, as well as those of blueberry and other nearby plants. During their week or so as flying adults, hoaries syphon moisture from wet soil…
