Theme
7:00am June 17, 2015
By dierk schaefer (Flickr: [1]) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons[Image description:  Five butterflies, four of them much larger than the fifth, eating an orange and other fruit at a butterfly exhibit in Germany.]Please don’t remove the image description, it is intended to let visually impaired people and other screenreader users know what is happening in the photo.

By dierk schaefer (Flickr: [1]) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

[Image description:  Five butterflies, four of them much larger than the fifth, eating an orange and other fruit at a butterfly exhibit in Germany.]

Please don’t remove the image description, it is intended to let visually impaired people and other screenreader users know what is happening in the photo.

6:52am June 17, 2015
“Nacimiento de una Dryas iulia, Mariposario de Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, España, 2012-12-13, DD 03” by Diego Delso. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons[Image description:  Photograph of a dryas iulia butterfly ecloding – emerging from its chrysalis.  It is upside-down and its pinkish-red wings look like pieces of cloth.]Please don’t delete the image description, it’s there for visually impaired people and other screenreader users.More about this type of butterfly, from Wikipedia:Dryas iulia (often incorrectly spelled julia),[1] commonly called the Julia Butterfly, Julia Heliconian, The Flame, or Flambeau, is a species of brush-footed butterfly. The sole representative of its genus Dryas, it is native from Brazil to southern Texas and Florida, and in summer can sometimes be found as far north as eastern Nebraska. Over 15 subspecies have been described.Its wingspan ranges from 82 to 92 mm, and it is colored orange (brighter in male specimens) with black markings; this species is somewhat unpalatable to birds and belongs to the “orange” Batesian Mimicry mimic complex.[2]This butterfly is a fast flier and frequents clearings, paths, and margins of forests and woodlands. It feeds on the nectar of flowers, such as lantanas (Lantana) and Shepherd’s-needle (Scandix pecten-veneris), and the tears of caiman, the eye of which the butterfly irritates to produce tears.[3] Its caterpillar feeds on leaves of passion vines including Passiflora affinis and Yellow Passionflower (P. lutea) in Texas.The species is popular in butterfly houses because it is long-lived and active throughout the day.

“Nacimiento de una Dryas iulia, Mariposario de Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, España, 2012-12-13, DD 03” by Diego Delso. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

[Image description:  Photograph of a dryas iulia butterfly ecloding – emerging from its chrysalis.  It is upside-down and its pinkish-red wings look like pieces of cloth.]

Please don’t delete the image description, it’s there for visually impaired people and other screenreader users.

More about this type of butterfly, from Wikipedia:

Dryas iulia (often incorrectly spelled julia),[1] commonly called the Julia Butterfly, Julia Heliconian, The Flame, or Flambeau, is a species of brush-footed butterfly. The sole representative of its genus Dryas, it is native from Brazil to southern Texas and Florida, and in summer can sometimes be found as far north as eastern Nebraska. Over 15 subspecies have been described.

Its wingspan ranges from 82 to 92 mm, and it is colored orange (brighter in male specimens) with black markings; this species is somewhat unpalatable to birds and belongs to the “orange” Batesian Mimicry mimic complex.[2]

This butterfly is a fast flier and frequents clearings, paths, and margins of forests and woodlands. It feeds on the nectar of flowers, such as lantanas (Lantana) and Shepherd’s-needle (Scandix pecten-veneris), and the tears of caiman, the eye of which the butterfly irritates to produce tears.[3] Its caterpillar feeds on leaves of passion vines including Passiflora affinis and Yellow Passionflower (P. lutea) in Texas.

The species is popular in butterfly houses because it is long-lived and active throughout the day.

5:44pm August 2, 2014
dramirez484: Woman with butterflies from Guatemala.

dramirez484:

Woman with butterflies from Guatemala.

4:17pm July 28, 2014
expositionfairy: What a gorgeous species.  I love the starlike effect from those lighter reflective scales.

expositionfairy:

What a gorgeous species.  I love the starlike effect from those lighter reflective scales.

3:08am July 27, 2014

sixpenceee:

littlekiwifrog:

Tear-drinking Butterflies

In the Amazon, it’s not uncommon to see groups of colorful butterflies fluttering around turtles basking along the river. This is because they drink the turtles’ tears—an invaluable source of salt for the herbivorous butterflies.

(source)

This is so cool

7:35am July 15, 2014

“Somewhere there is a blade of grass that has been unchanged by man or machine,” I wrote. “It will sprout forth, grow, and die, without ever being validated by man nor beast. How many butterflies in all their splendid glory are born and fly through a mountain meadow, and soon die without their beauty ever being viewed or appreciated?”

— Dully, Howard; Fleming, Charles (2007-09-04). My Lobotomy (p. 203). Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 
5:23pm May 26, 2014
faustinepau: This Blue Morpho tried to hide from me… (via 500px / The Emperor by Wim Bolsens)

faustinepau:

This Blue Morpho tried to hide from me…

(via 500px / The Emperor by Wim Bolsens)

4:09am May 5, 2014

Wow that butterfly is see-through.

2:31am September 21, 2013
stilllifequickheart: John White Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly 1585-93 Terrifying. Reminds me of being taught to kill butterflies and pin them to things and feeling all the while like I wanted to throw up but never realizing I had any choice in the matter. And the swallowtail that flew into my dollhouse and died with its wings open. (Unless someone put it there. But if they did nobody admitted.) Leading to a truly OCD level terror of dead butterflies until I felt as if they were everywhere and I was stepping on them and couldn’t get away from them. And whenever I saw one for real I couldn’t go within a certain distance. And then flower petals that looked like wings created the same fear so anywhere I had seen one I couldn’t step. And so I was sometimes literally climbing on stuff so I wouldn’t have to step on anywhere a flower petal had fallen in the last two years. Holy crap I’m glad my OCD got less severe with age. I had forgotten until now the time period when my head was so full of dead butterflies I couldn’t think of anything else. I only wish I’d known so much earlier that I had any control over… anything, at all, ever. I like butterflies. But there’s something about butterflies wings wide open flat like that. That reminds me too much of dead mounted butterflies. Inside everything in my entire being knew you can’t kill and collect a living being without hurting it. But I didn’t know I could avoid doing it. Didn’t know I could avoid just about anything I hated. No connections somewhere. And they used to land all over me. They trusted me. That makes it worse. Sorry for ruining pretty butterfly pictures though.

stilllifequickheart:

John White

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

1585-93

Terrifying.

Reminds me of being taught to kill butterflies and pin them to things and feeling all the while like I wanted to throw up but never realizing I had any choice in the matter.

And the swallowtail that flew into my dollhouse and died with its wings open. (Unless someone put it there. But if they did nobody admitted.)

Leading to a truly OCD level terror of dead butterflies until I felt as if they were everywhere and I was stepping on them and couldn’t get away from them. And whenever I saw one for real I couldn’t go within a certain distance. And then flower petals that looked like wings created the same fear so anywhere I had seen one I couldn’t step.

And so I was sometimes literally climbing on stuff so I wouldn’t have to step on anywhere a flower petal had fallen in the last two years.

Holy crap I’m glad my OCD got less severe with age. I had forgotten until now the time period when my head was so full of dead butterflies I couldn’t think of anything else.

I only wish I’d known so much earlier that I had any control over… anything, at all, ever.

I like butterflies. But there’s something about butterflies wings wide open flat like that. That reminds me too much of dead mounted butterflies.

Inside everything in my entire being knew you can’t kill and collect a living being without hurting it. But I didn’t know I could avoid doing it. Didn’t know I could avoid just about anything I hated. No connections somewhere.

And they used to land all over me. They trusted me. That makes it worse.

Sorry for ruining pretty butterfly pictures though.