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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.