New Red “Admirable” Pics.
Location: SE Michigan
September 7, 2010 10:25 am
Dear Bugman: As per your recent mention of not receiving any new photos of Red ”Admirables” lately, I am submitting these two, to fill the void. Both of these Red Admirals were shot in SE Michigan. The under-wing closeup was taken in my backyard, on a Buddleia bush. The other was shot in a field at an area Metro Park, along Lake Erie. The colors and iridescence on the close-up butterfly were spectacular, making me wonder if it was very recently emerged. Not a single wing scale was out of place and it was very calm and content, allowing me to take many super close-ups.
Signature: Christine
Hi Christine,
Though we don’t expect to convince the world to begin calling this cheerful butterfly a Red Admirable instead of the accepted Red Admiral, we cannot help but to be amused by Vladimir Nabokov’s wry sense of humor and his play on words when he coined the alternative name. Thank you so much for correcting the void in our archives due to the ongoing dearth of recent images of Vanessa atalanta.
Nabokov was entirely correct in calling this butterfly the ‘Red Admirable’ – the name ‘Red Admiral’ being a corruption of the original 18th-century name.
Thanks for that etymological comment.