The hoary elfin may be one of our littlest butterflies, but it’s also one of the earliest species to emerge as spring weather sets in.
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 and puddles to imbibe minerals.
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Elfins usually hunker down on or near the ground with their wings closed. They bask by tilting until their underwings—edged in a hoarfrost-like silver-grey—face the angle of the sun. This raises their body temperature enough to achieve flight even on cool days, despite their scant size.
Male elfins emerge first and keep to regular perches in wait for fleeting liaisons. After mating, a female may lay her minute, greenish white eggs over several days, distributed singly on the flower stems and leaf buds of bearberry or trailing arbutus.
Did you know? Get out your magnifying glass! The tiny hoary elfin—it has a maximum wingspan of 2.5 cm—lays tiny specks for eggs. They can take less than a week to hatch, becoming caterpillars that never grow larger than 1.5 cm. Aww. The head of a sewing pin, at 4mm, is larger than a hoary elfin egg, at 0.6mm.
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Caterpillars hatch five to nine days later. They munch flowers and leaves for about four weeks, gradually becoming darker green and reaching little larger than a cooked piece of long-grain rice. Around early summer, they find a low, sheltered place to pupate. Adult butterflies are almost fully formed within the chrysalides before winter.
This article was originally published in the May 2025 issue of Cottage Life.
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