Orange and Black Butterfly

Just pretty.


XOxoXOX

Yellow and Black Tiger Stripe Swallowtail Butterfly

Just enjoy the magical construction of nature... nothing I can say about the swallowtail could be more interesting then it's patterns...
XoXo

Tree Bark Butterfly With Orange Wings

This neato butterfly landed on my boot and stayed there licking it for nearly 20 minutes! I have been wanting to look at one of these close up because it is one of those butterflies that has a totally different persona on the inside, then it does on the outside. (Just like some people!)
When sunning itself it has brilliant deep orange wings with black spots on it, the jagged edges make it even more striking - but when it closes it's wings it suddenly transforms into something akin to tree bark.
It's like an optical illusion! It's legs even look like little dead branches stripped of bark. I <3 this butterfly, it's reversible. :)
Anyone know it's scientific name and info?
XoXo

Yellow Green Butterfly (with brown dots) on Pineapple Sage

This butterfly is a perfect example of insect adaptation for survival! When flying through the sunny clear skies it looks very yellow and it's pretty noticeable- but when doing it's business of pollinating and eating it blends in with the leaves around it. It was feeding on a pineapple sage plant in my garden, and appeared to be exactly the same color as the leaves around it.
Another amazing thing is this butterfly is coming out during the beginning of the fall leaf change, which makes it blend in with the yellowing of the once green leaves, and the brown dots on it's wings are mimic of the beginning of leaf decay.
You can see in the pic right above where the pineapple sage leaf is intersecting the pic on the far right- it looks just like the butterfly! Neato!
This butterfly is fairly shy and does not let ya get nearly as close to it as many of the common swallowtails...I had to stay pretty still and work up some kind of trust to get close- so I am super excited i got these pictures for ya'll!
XoXo

Black and Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly

These yellow swallowtails have to be the most playful butterflies I have ever seen! They swoop quickly from flower to flower, the flit around with all the other types of butterfly, and I wondered around the cow field full of thistle aimlessly trying to follow them... just to get these pictures.
Thistle is one of those awesome wildflowers that attracts every kind of flying insect I love. It amazes me how the butterfly is flying all around those giant thorns with their delicate wings - perfect precision!
The black swallowtail and the yellow swallowtail were flirting on a light breeze together! How sweet, inter-variety love!!!
XoXo

Orange and Black Butterfly on Marigold

Oh, pretty.
XoXo

Swallowtail Butterfly

Of all the butterflies around here this one is the most difficult to catch on camera, I pretty much had to find one that was slightly distressed to get near it. Normally they are flitting high in the air, like little striped birds... swooping over the roof, over the bamboo, around the silo and far away from me. Have you ever seen the movie The Last Unicorn?? These tiger patterned swallowtails are like the poetic butterfly who briefly speaks to the unicorn, jabbering only in riddles, prose, and scrambled stories- (EX. "have you seen the muffin man the muffin man the muffin man").

xoxo

Butterflies!

Ooooh pretty... The white butterfly up top was on a turnip flower (go little pollinator GO!)
This orange speckled dream machine below is on a purple clover flower (aren't they edible, have any of you ever eaten one... the flower not the butterfly!?)

And this slow moving battered swallowtail was resting on a burdock leaf in the sun.

xoxo

Flutterbies

Caterpillar Eating Dill

I didn't know caterpillars would eat herbs, but this little guy has made his whole life based on this one tiny organic dill plant.

He started out much smaller, blackish and spiky - and has transformed into this beauty which I know he will get alot bigger, then cocoon. It's worth the dill sacrifice to watch him live out his life cycles right on my porch.