Cheryl, Owie!!! I hope that's a photo of the foot shortly after surgery & not what it looks this long later!

I can relate to your surgery Cheryl, I had wrist and arm surgery near 2 weeks ago. Lot of stitches, regaining control slowly but surely (I think).

Sulphur -


Pearl Crescent -


Chickweed Geometer - a very small moth in the grass...

David, just maybe the monarchs you are seeing will lay some eggs... wondering if it is possible that they are just running late this year.

It happened with the fireflies this year. We usually see them in June but this year we didn't see very many until July... I don't know?

Saw my first Monarch today and she was laying eggs on my milkweed.

Great pics Goat! Is that an American Lady? I see a lot of Am. Lady, but hardly ever a Painted Lady. Are they rare/endangered?

Good luck with your rescue David. I love Sphinx moths!

Those sulfurs are beautiful, jmorth. Almost camoflaged with the coreopsis.

On the topic of swallowtails, I took this photo last year, and labeled it a female black form Tiger Swallowtail, but maybe it's a male Spicebush? Anyone care to weigh in on this?



I saw a beautiful Eastern Tiger and lots of skippers yesterday while working in the garden. I almost went in to get my phone, but I know if I start taking pictures, I won't ever get the yard work done!

that is a black morph tiger Jessie

http://louisiananaturalist.blo...

this is the article I liked , but couldn't find ...


"A dark female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail mimics another butterfly called the Pipevine Swallowtail. Mimicry is when one animal looks just like another animal in order to gain safety or some other advantage. Pipevine Swallowtails eat a plant called Pipevine which makes them taste nasty to predators. Predators will learn to leave them alone. The dark female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail will also get left alone since it looks like a Pipevine Swallowtail, even though it is good to eat! Female tiger swallowtails will only have the dark form if a lot of Pipevine Swallowtails live in the same area. However, there will still be some light form females as well."

copied from - http://www.fcps.edu/islandcree...

but this is also an odd statement because I see a lot of black Tiger STs but NO Pipevine STs here.
Although my county's local list of butterflies does include Pipevine STs.

krobra said:

http://louisiananaturalist.blo...

Thanks, Kurt. Very good explanation of four different dark swallowtail butterflies.

a new article I stumbled across while looking for the older one.

each link shows a tiger that is half dark / half yellow

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/20...

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/20...

Jessie6162 said:Great pics Goat! Is that an American Lady? I see a lot of Am. Lady, but hardly ever a Painted Lady. Are they rare/endangered?

Good luck with your rescue David. I love Sphinx moths!

Those sulfurs are beautiful, jmorth. Almost camoflaged with the coreopsis.

On the topic of swallowtails, I took this photo last year, and labeled it a female black form Tiger Swallowtail, but maybe it's a male Spicebush? Anyone care to weigh in on this?



I saw a beautiful Eastern Tiger and lots of skippers yesterday while working in the garden. I almost went in to get my phone, but I know if I start taking pictures, I won't ever get the yard work done!

You got it right Jessie.

Thanks @krobra for that article! That made it so clear. I also see almost all tigers and no pipevines at my house. I think pipevine grows around here, but I'm afraid to add it to the garden for fear of it taking over! Perhaps an explanation is that although there may not be pipevine butterflies around, the predators probably don't know that. They think the the dark form females are the bad-tasting pipevines and so the dark tigers continue to survive and reproduce. For a trait to decrease or go away, that trait would have to be selected against, and this trait seems to be beneficial.

Edit: Forgot to say, that half and half tiger is about the coolest butterfly I have ever seen!

Jessie, you were right the first time. Dark form Tiger.

I agree, that 1/2 & 1/2 is WILD!

Today i saw #5 Monarch , a male on patrol
A large Black Swallowtail oviposting on Queen Anne's Lace
Three of the eastern Swallowtails ,,
My hands were full at the time ,.. They'll be back , me too

Lots of smaller one's Also ,

I had 3 tigers at once today too , only two of them were on the same bush though and one of those flew away just as I was getting there with cell phone in hand
but I did manage to get a couple shots of the last one.

So beautiful.

I went to the province of Formosa, in the North of Argentina and I saw these butterflies there. I must look for their names. They can't be seen where I live.

@JMORTH
I can relate to your surgery Cheryl, I had wrist and arm surgery near 2 weeks ago. Lot of stitches, regaining control slowly but surely (I think)
Getting older can be rough-huh? My surgery pic was taken in the 1st week post op

That is a really pretty butterfly, Ceci! Did you find a name?

Plenty of Gulf frits around

I found the name of the second one:
Mariposa fueguera Mechanitis lysimnia

I couldn't find the name of the first one yet.

It is not the best time of the year to see butterflies here (Winter) . But the North is hot almost all the year long and I could see some beautiful ones. Unfortunately I could not take pictures of a really beautiful one that was flying around.
This one : http://faunayfloradelargentina...