Blue Blessing!

Got off work yesterday an hour or so early so went to Clear Creek Metro park.  Went to a section I rarely visit, Good Prairie and Prairie Warbler Trail.  Rarely go there because Clear Creek Road past the Fern Trail parking area gets very rough, with lots of potholes, loose gravel, and  steep drop-offs into the creek lacking guard rails, and about an extra four miles worth of this.  Not the funnest of roads on the motorcycle.
 So glad I did though.  Wasn't much flying (or blooming) in the prairie except for Silver-spotted Skipper on Baptisia (I think).  But the milkweed near the parking area yielded a couple good finds, including Pepper and Salt Skipper and Banded Hairstreak.  But the best find was along Prairie Warbler Trail, about 50 yards from its upper entry to the picnic area.  On the left was a row of perhaps a dozen Black Cohosh plants.  Appalachian Azure adults, whose (who's?) host is Black Cohosh, had been seen earlier in the season in a different section of the park.  So, I thought, what the heck, I have time, lets look at flower buds for awhile and see if we find any caterpillars.  On the next to last plant in the row, there it was, complete with attending ant!
 Ants attend many species of Blue's caterpillars for the "honeydew" that the cat excretes.  In return for the sugary food, the ant protects the caterpillar from harm.  My understanding is that the ants take the caterpillar down into its hill where it safely pupates.  Of course, the tricky part is after the butterfly ecloses (emerges).  The butterfly now has to get back out of the ant hill without being attacked by the ants.  Funny how God arranged all this stuff!

Appalachian Azure caterpillar with attending ant

Little Glassywing

Pepper and Salt Skipper.  Also note Great Spangled Fritillaries in background and Grape Plume Moth in upper left.

Banded Hairstreak

 So anyways, added species number 59 for the BBY with the Appalachian Azure.