Jrcagle yep i was thinking that also, #7-#10 did look like a hairstreak, it did have the little "hairs" at the end of the wings. The pics were taken along a forest roadside in Trinidad. Thanks larry, it is indeed similar to Chlosyne lacinia. But there arent much information on the internet or pictures about these tropical butterflies. Im gonna check out the book butterflies of trinidad and tobago at the library and see what information i get about these butterflies. Finding the host plants is sometimes a challenge, but i usually go out there and observe plants that have caterpillars on them. then figure out what the caterpillars are. Ive found quite a few varieties of species passiflora which are host plants by looking for which butterflies would lay eggs on them or what caterpillars are on them. Right now im also searching for the morpho peleides host plant which i know is in the mucuna family. Although i have no idea which variety of mucuna they feed on or what it looks like, i know what the caterpillars look like, so its down to finding them on the host plant. Siam.

Mary, If you've follow this forum for a while, you will have the opportunity tio read many discussions about definitions: weed, invasive, wildflower, native, introduced. Fascinating stuff to me, but these discussions often get compliated (and sometimes heated). While some think that a weed is just 'a flower out of place', the term 'weed' refers to plant that tend to colonize disturbed habitats -- which by definition includes all yards and gardens. It's not about appearance: a beautiful flowering plant can be a terrible weed. If you think of it this way, it doesn't matter whether your plant is the native or non-native dayflower, it is weedy if it behaves like a weed. The non-native dayflower is definitely weedy (but not a major problem, to my knowledge). I don't know about the native species, but many there are many well-behaved native species that are closely related to non-native weeds. A good example is the native honeyuckles vs the Asian honeysuckles.

Mandevilla may be the first one. The last looks like Acanthus.

My cursory search yesterday turned up nothing; today I decided the butterfly was too small for most nymphalids, and while searching through the coppers and blues, I decided there were definite metalmark markings. Your butterfly is a metalmark, family Riodinidae. Species is probably Calospila emylius. http://insecta.pro/taxonomy/53003 https://hiveminer.com/Tags/calospila,riodinidae (^ second row at right)