Sarota gyas jewelmark, La Isla Escondida, Colombia

This observation surely is one of the butterfly highlights of our trip. It's a combination of beauty, size and rarity. This butterfly is unbelievably tiny, yet in that small size packs a lot of beauty. To quote from learnaboutbutterflies.com:

"The Sarota Jewelmarks are possibly the cutest butterflies in the world. They have a very rapid and erratic flight. When seen buzzing about in the early morning they can easily be mistaken for small flies. Eventually they settle however and reveal themselves as creatures of exquisite beauty, with bright orange undersides streaked with metallic silver; and cute little furry legs!"

As for rarity:

"Most of them are extremely rare and elusive - so much so that only that even the most experienced observers rarely manage to see more than half a dozen species in a lifetime."

"Most Sarota species found in rainforest habitats below 1000m, although at least one is found as high as 1700m in the eastern Andes. Sarota gyas is found at altitudes between 0-800m. Populations are highly localised - often limited to a tiny corner of a forest."

I can't fully judge on the rarity of this species in the genus (there are several reference photos to be found) but I can at least confirm that during 5 full days (and nights) of spending time in this jungle, this was the only observation.