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Butterfly from SA
Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:56 PM
Butterfly from SA
This butterfly was found in February 2009 on a walking trail in Kokoriba Nature Reserve 120km west of Pretoria between the towns of Brits and Thabazimbi.
Meerkat
North West Province, South Africa
Yellow Pansy, Junonia hierta
Dear Meerkat,
We are uncertain of the species, but we believe this is a Brush Footed Butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. Perhaps one of our readers can assist with the identification.
African butterfly
Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 7:06 AM
What is this pretty butterfly? It looks a little similar to the American buckeyes.
Judy Gallagher
Victoria Falls, Zambia
Zambian Brush Footed Butterfly
Hi Judy,
Your observation that this Zambian Butterfly resembled an American Buckeye was a good one. Both are in the same family, Nymphalidae. We searched the web for about 20 minutes trying to identify your specimen, but we did not have any luck. Perhaps one of our readers will write in with an answer.
Update: Zambian Brushfoot
Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 6:24 AM
Hi Daniel:
You and Judy are closer than you thought. The butterfly is called the Brown Pansy (Junonia natalica), a brushfoot in the same genus as the Common Buckeye from North America (Junonia coenia). It’s quite a large genus, with representatives in tropical and sub-tropical regions of most continents. There aren’t many good images on the internet (Judys is now one of them) but the UK Butterflies site has an article on the butterflies of Kruger National Park – scroll down to Brown Pansy and click on the thumbnail. Regards.
Karl
Here is the link: http://www.ukbutterflies.co. uk/reports_kruger.php
Brown-orange Australian Butterfly
Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 12:40 PM
The attached photo shows a brown-orange butterfly. It is the only photo I have of it. The antennae are striped and the horns appear to be bright orange at the tip. There seems to be a dark band across the top of the head, surrounded by a white patch. The neck is rufous. Clearly the spread wings provide the most obvious clues to its id. The forewings are plain brown. The hindwings are brown with a prominent orange pattern and an orange, black and white “eyespot”.
I suspect this is a skipper common to the northeastern region of Australia because I saw several. Wish I could provide more info but this is all I have for you. Any help you can give me will be appreciated.
Brown-orange Australian Butterfly
Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, Australia
Unknown Gossamer Wing Butterfly
In our opinion, this is a Gossamer Wing Butterfly in the family Lycaenidae which includes the Blues and Coppers, but we cannot find a matching specimen on the Brisbane Insects web site. We will continue to try to get an accurate species identification.
Correction
This is a common Brown Ringlet, Hypocysta metirius. It is found on the East coast of Australia, Queensland to Victoria.
See: http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_nymphs/CommonBrownRinglet.htm
Grev
Missouri Butterly
Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 1:05 PM
Poor quality photo from phone camera. Out of Houston, MO. What kind is it or is it not a butterfly but a moth? Thank you
Bobby from MO
Houston, MO
Goatweed Leafwing
Hi Bobby,
Even though your photo is quite blurry, we are nonetheless excited to post it because it represents a new species for our website. This is a Goatweed Leafwing Butterfly, Anaea andria. Leafwings are mainly a tropical group of butterflies in the subfamily Charaxinae. According to Jeffrey Glassberg in the book Butterflies Through Binoculars The West, the Goatweed Leafwing: “often flies as if swooping up and down on ocean waves. Overwintering individuals have more pointed FWs [forewings] than summer individuals.” We tried to make this post yesterday morning, but we lost our Time Warner internet connection mysteriously.
Butterfly? Moth?
Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 2:33 PM
Hey Dan !
Merry Christmas.
Back in August this creature was fluttering around, landing on
leafs, seemingly looking for a place to deposit eggs ?
Appeared more iridescent than show in the photo. Are you familiar with it?
Thanks,
Ferd Hall
Lawrencevill,GA
(Just north of Atlanta)
Red Spotted Purple
Hi Ferd,
Your butterfly is a Red Spotted Purple, Limenitis arthemis. There are several subspecies of this lovely butterfly, including the White Admiral.
Milbert’s Tortoiseshell
Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 6:43 AM
Hello Bugman:
As another Canadian winter settles in I take cheer in organizing the mountain of photos that accumulate during our short but brilliant summers. Here is another one of my favourite North American butterflies, the Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis milberti). Not only are they strikingly beautiful, they are also very widespread (most of Canada south of the tundra, and northern and western USA, particularly the mountain states). This adult was photographed in a high alpine meadow in the southern Alberta Rockies, and the larvae are from southeastern Manitoba. Our winters are long up here and one of the sure signs of spring is the re-emergence of these creatures in early spring. They are around all summer and one of the last to disappear in late autumn, when the adults go into hibernation. Another endearing feature; the caterpillars feed almost exclusively on stinging nettle! Regards.
Karl
Milbert's Tortoiseshell
Hi Karl,
Thank you for sending your excellent photos of two phases in the metamorphosis of the Milbert’s Tortoiseshell as well as the detailed information on the species. This is an excellent addition to our archive.
Milbert's Tortoiseshell Caterpillars
Butterfly ID?
Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 4:03 PM
I photographed this butterfly sunning on the deck by the pool in early Sept. At first it looks quite plain, but some of the detail is stunning! I guess I am going to have to invest in some good insect id books to go with my new camera!
Sara Edwards
NW Tennessee
Common Buckeye
Hi Sara,
This beautiful butterfly is known as the Common Buckeye. We hope its human namesakes, all those Ohio voters in the Buckeye Swing State, get out to vote.
Question Mark Butterfly?
Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 11:09 AM
We found a cacoon stuck to my daughter’s sand pail handle so I brought it in so we could see what came out of it. This is what came out. SO PRETTY. We had to catch it so we could let it go outside. Not sure what kind it is? I’m thinking question mark, we have a book but it looks purple in the book. Is this still the same?
Aubrey
North Texas
Question Mark
Hi Aubrey,
Your identification of this Question Mark is absolutely correct. Differentiating the various species of “punctuation mark” butterflies can be quite difficult. We are still having major problems with our Time Warner internet connection, and our signal is very very very slow. Consequently, we can only post a few letters.
Dingy Purplewing
Here are photos of a Dingy Purplewing butterfly and some caterpillars in one of my Gumbo Limbo trees Assassin bugs will eat all the caterpillars so I raise them in the house if I can get to them in time. Normally you can only see where they were. We released almost 30 butterflies from the batch in the picture.
Tad Swackhammer
hi Tad,
Just imagine our elation to read your subject line for a species we did not have represented on our site. Then we were crestfallen to realize you did not provide us with a location. We are guessing you may be in Florida as all the submissions to BugGuide for the Dingy Purplewing, Eunica monima, originated in Florida. Your story of intervention is quite touching.
Eight Spotted Forrester Photos
Greetings!
I found this moth flying in our home in northwest Florida and waited for it to land on a surface I could photograph — two days later, it finally did! I couldn’t ID it with our reference materials, so I searched the ‘net and found your website…very cool! Since you indicate that there are few photos of these beauties, you are welcome to post them–but please do not remove the photo credit ( © Lynne Shelfer) . Besides finding a useful resource, I was excited to learn that Lisa Anne and Daniel are from my home in SoCal (relocated about 10 years ago but return frequently). I have family, friends and former colleagues who are alumni from Art Center, LACC and SC.
Cheers,
L. Shelfer
P.S. I also included photos of a butterfly which I can’t ID. From a pix on your site, it resembles the Red Spotted Purple. Please confirm or correct. Thanks!
Hi Lynne,
You are correct on both of your identifications. Coincidentally, a day after your letter, we received another image of an Eight Spotted Forrester, but we have been so busy with work this week, we are a bit behind in both posting and answering letters. Your Red Spotted Purple photos are quite spectacular. We had a bit of a problem removing all of your images from the word document where you included the copyright information, so we had to go to the image file you enclosed. We do reduce the size of all images on our site to 72 dpi so if someone “steals” an image, it will not be of a very high quality. Since we post images with letters, and your name is in print, anyone who sees the image will know that you are the author.
Gulf Fritillary
I love Passion Vine, though I rarely get to enjoy the flowers. Instead, I have tons and tons of Gulf Fritillary butterflies, and encourage their growth by moving the caterpillars around my garden so they can all get a decent meal. I was thrilled to find this newly emerged butterfly in between the other two developing chrysalises, and wanted to share the picture with you.
Emma
DeLand FL
Hi Emma,
Thanks for sending us your photo of two stages in metamorphosis of the Gulf Fritillary, a newly emerged butterfly and a caterpillar about to pupate.
Our Caterpillar Turned into a Butterfly Today….or is it a Moth??
Hello,
I had written a few weeks back (see below), and hadn’t heard back from you…I completely understand why…no worries really 
But my four year old and I decided to “keep” the caterpillar. I was going to put him outside the next morning, but woke up to him in a cocoon! I figured he’d be fine if we kept him until he emerged. And today it happened! My daughter noticed the cocoon was empty and his short visit was over. Thought you might like a before and after shot
Brittany Clarke
(09/28/2007) Caterpillar Question
My four year old found this little guy in the grass. We live in the northwestern part of Virginia & was wondering what kind of caterpillar this is. After looking through your site, the closest I can guess is a Mourning Cloak or Brush Footed??? Your help is much appreciated!!!!
Brittany Clarke
Hi Brittany,
Thank you so much for your patience, both at our lack of response, and with the wait for your Common Buckeye caterpillar to metamorphose into the adult Common Buckeye butterfly.
