Beautiful Butterfly you might be interested in
Sat, May 16, 2009 at 4:58 AM
I found this guy resting on my azeala bush a few days ago, thought he was beautiful and grabbed my camera. I have never see a butterfly like this in Long Island, NY and possible ideas?
Mary R.
Long Island
Black Swallowtail
Good Morning Mary,
We hated cropping your beautifully composed image of a female Black Swallowtail because it was such a lovely photograph, but our readership is more interested in seeing the insects as large as possible, so we eliminated much of your azalea and the fence in the background. Female Black Swallowtails have blue markings on the lower wings while the male has only yellow spots. The male is also smaller.
Wyoming’s state butterfly
Sun, May 10, 2009 at 5:39 AM
Hi Lisa Anne and Daniel, this past winter Wyoming was first designated a state butterfly, the Sheridan’s Green Hairstreak. The process was begun by some Sheridan County third grade students as a civics project. They wanted it to be the state insect but a sponsoring Sheridan legistator suggested naming it the state butterfly instead, “to leave the insect open for other students who may want to designate the state spider, for example”…insert your own joke here.
Anyway, it is a beautiful creature.
Peace,
Dwaine
near Powder River, WY
Sheridan's Hairstreak
Thanks Dwaine,
We are happy to hear that Wyoming now has a state butterfly and can’t wait to hear about the soon to be selected state spider. This lovely Sheridan’s Green Hairstreak, Callophrys sheridanii is a welcome addition to our butterfly archives, which have grown significantly thanks to your numerous wonderful photographs.
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 6:32 PM
I found these butterflies resting around a severed moose leg in Northern Ontario.
Katrena
Timmins
Canadian Swallowtails and severed moose leg
Goodness Gracious Katrena …
Was a former American vice-presidential candidate in your area? Male swallowtail butterflies are often attracted to mud puddles where they drink in the moisture which contains essential minerals like sodium. This behavior is known as a puddle party or just puddling. We have also heard that they are attracted to urine and fresh feces and perhaps to putrifying flesh, presumably for the same reason. We located an image of Pipevine Swallowtails on horse dung online. There are some awesome puddling photos on this website. The encyclopedia of Arkansas history butterflies and moths page indicates: “The males of many butterfly species gather at damp areas to imbibe mineral salts, known as “mud-puddling.” Males use these salts for their own bodily functions, but they pass them to the female in the spermatophore during copulation. These mineral salts seem to aid female egg production. Males and females may be observed imbibing mineral salts and amino acids from carnivore scat, horse urine, and rotting animal carcasses.” You photo of Canadian Tiger Swallowtails, Papilio canadensis, with a severed moose leg will make quite the conversation piece on our site. Thanks so much for sending us the image.
Brown Elfin b’fly
Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Hi Lisa Anne and Daniel. I noticed you haven’t a Brown Elfin butterfly on your site. Here is one on juniper that I found in central WY on 4/21.
Peace,
Dwaine
near Casper, WY
Brown Elfin
Hi Dwaine,
We are going to trust your identification that this is a Brown Elfin, Callophrys augustinus, because there are many species in the genus and proper identification might tax our questionable taxonomic skills well beyond the level we feel comfortable. According to BugGuide it is: “locally common; the most often encountered elfin in most of its range.” Elfins are grouped together with the Blues, Coppers and Hairstreaks as the Gossamer Winged Butterflies in the family Lycaenidae.
Some Type of Swallowtail Maybe??
Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 11:13 AM
This pretty butterfly was resting on damp fur this morning and it was such a pretty shade of mint green I had to grab the camera. It had extensions on the tail similar to yellow swallowtails (we have a bunch of those right now) but he/she was much prettier. It would not spread its wings very much for me but it did have red markings near the abdomen on the wings. I live in Eastern Tennessee and today is a nice warm, sunny day. Many butterflies are fluttering about. Anyway, I’d like to know what this little guy/gal is.
Pam Balog
eastern tennessee
Zebra Swallowtail
Hi Pam,
What beautiful photos of a Zebra Swallowtail, Eurytides marcellus, puddling. Male Zebra Swallowtails take fluids from wet sand and it is believed that they need necessary minerals and electrolytes, and this is a convenient way for them to imbibe them.
Zebra Swallowtail
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They remained very still, but intermittently would flap their wings. I watched them for about 30 minutes and took several pictures and video. Although I attempted to identify what type they were by searching on the internet, there are far too many species for a non-etymologist like myself to even narrow it down. Bugman, please help me to identify these unknown butterfly lovers!
