These Tawny silver-Line butterflies are cavorting at the top of Israel’s Mt. Hermon. At their own peril they disregarded my approach, even when I was 15″ from them, shooting with my macro-lens. As with hairstreaks, they are tailed. The silver-line shimmers in the sunlight.

Found at high elevations in central and northern Israel, these Apharitis acamas were photographed in June 2008. June 2013 would have been another opportunity to meet their progeny, but conflagration and savagery in Syria, down at the north face of Hermon, necessitated that the mountain was off limits.

Their body plan is quite different from other butterflies, with their oversized abdomens and seemingly smallish wings. As you admire them and wonder how they can fly, poof! they fly away, effortlessly. Nice engineering.

Jeff