Clytie Ministreak

Ministrymon clytie · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Lycaenidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Clytie Ministreak
Photo: Julio Cesar Chavez Barrera, CC BY

The Clytie hairstreak is a butterfly in the Lycaenidae family. It lives in openings of tropical forests and subtropical thorn forests across the southwestern United States down to Central America. Its caterpillars feed on plants of the genus Pithecellobium.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Ministrymon clytie, the Clytie hairstreak, belongs to the butterfly family Lycaenidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It is found in tropical forest openings and subtropical thorn forests.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

The larvae feed on species of the plant genus Pithecellobium.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its range includes southern Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 3 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Kansas, Arizona.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Questions people ask

What do Clytie hairstreak caterpillars eat?

The caterpillars feed on plants in the Pithecellobium genus.

Source: Wikipedia

Where is the Clytie hairstreak found?

It occurs from southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas down through Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Source: Wikipedia

What kind of habitat does the Clytie hairstreak prefer?

It lives in openings of tropical forests and in subtropical thorn forests.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Lycaenidae)

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministrymon_clytie

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.