Lepidoptera Lovers: Butterfly Kisses

[beautress]

Couldn't resist this one, and it looks like a blue morpho, except it has a sort-of swallow's tail.

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[beautress]

'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple Limenitis arthemis astyanax | Butterflies and Moths of North America​

 

[beautress]

Spot the Difference between butterflies and moths

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[beautress]

Coming another day: Lepidoptera Taxonomic Training

In the meantime, here's a great show about the 7 families of Butterflies:

By the way, at youtube, it gives a correction:
CORRECTION:
6:45 on depicts a metalmark MOTH,
not a metalmark butterfly!
It's still cool though.
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[Care4all]

We may differ politically Becky but we sure do have the same interests outside of this forum!!!

 

[Care4all]

I have a Meadow surrounded by woods in front of my home, which has all kinds of critters that rely on it.... from deer to butterflies!

Especially when it is not cut... in the Spring, the deer leave their fawn there and the doe stays in the woods on my house's side of the Way and keeps an eye on them... they sleep on my side of the dirt Way and leave the baby fawn in the meadow because fawns have no smell and if they stay still in the tall grasses and bushes, the Coyote won't smell them out to kill and eat them.... the mothers do smell so they want the Coyotes to seek them out, not their fawn

 

[Care4all]

the second picture is of course a bumble bee.... they like purple too! Butterflies LOVE purple flowers! At least here they do!

 

[beautress]

We may differ politically Becky but we sure do have the same interests outside of this forum!!!

Thanks for sharing those beautiful pictures, Care4all. They are close in resemblance to the gulf coast butterflies on the back forty at my little farmstead. It's pretty remote because it's like a floodplain when we're not having a drought, so I leave the land alone except for carving a path around the fencelines to prevent fires in case of a drought as serious as the one in 2011 when one day, I saw 7 areas that had smoke rising from wooded areas or meadows near and far. Lucky for me the neighbors on all 3 sides and across the farm road had no fires, so we were gratefully spared. But my Kubota got overtime that summer. 90 days of temps over 90F, 60 consecutive days were said by the radio were 100F or more. And last January, it was very moderate here. I couldn't believe my eyes, day after day, when we had giant sulphurs gracefully winging their way up and down, over the house, and under the fence--just everywhere. To me their sight was just breath taking.

 

[Care4all]

I'll be in Florida this weekend visiting my parents for a few weeks, so I will get to experience the heat! It is usually in the 70's all summer long up here so we feel like we are suffocating and it is sweltering when it hits the 80's like it did this past summer.... the critters and bugs seem to do really well here in this cooler summer weather than when I lived in Florida with the heat.... but what I do LOVE about down there are all the long legged water birds and I usually get some good pictures of them when I visit my parents and sister....

I'm jealous, I want to live on your farmstead!

 

[Care4all]

This is a moth, that comes every year! It waits for days stuck to the screen webbing on the deck gazebo.... days and days and days, just stck to the screening...

THEN....

It's MATE comes.... they do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight!!! hahaha!

But what a beautiful Moth!

Doing the naughty when it's mate showed up

 

[beautress]

Thanks, Care4all. I hope the Sunshine State puts her best weather foot forward while you are staying there with your parents. Years ago, when my in-laws lived in Tampa, Florida, we visited a Butterfly facility in a large greenhouse with glassed entrance rooms to insure that no butterflies escaped from the interior gardens. It was so totally fascinating, we made sure every vacation after that had another butterfly garden somewhere we could visit. That one in central Florida was within an hour's drive from Tampa, though. I wish I had a better memory and could remember the name of the town. Seems we visited a cactus garden that was in the shape of the United States and each state had the same cacti species growing in it to give it a separate look from the neighboring states. Those were the days... Butterfly gardens that are outdoors have this little problem--the one not far from here we saw exactly two butterflies the whole time. Our little friends in the Lepidoptera order are shy, are often are not scheduled to escape their cocoons some days, so it's not like the amazing Cockrell Butterfly Garden, the Houston Museum of Natural History, where winged beauties are flitting a yard or two apart all the hours of the day. Cockrell Butterfly Center | Houston Museum Of Natural Science

 

[beautress]

This is a moth, that comes every year! It waits for days stuck to the screen webbing on the deck gazebo.... days and days and days, just stck to the screening...

THEN....

It's MATE comes.... they do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight!!! hahaha!

But what a beautiful Moth!

Doing the naughty when it's mate showed up

They're beautiful to me, Care4all. Thanks for sharing. Are those Atlas Moths? They sure have fabulous markings.

 

[Care4all]

Thanks, Care4all. I hope the Sunshine State puts her best weather foot forward while you are staying there with your parents. Years ago, when my in-laws lived in Tampa, Florida, we visited a Butterfly facility in a large greenhouse with glassed entrance rooms to insure that no butterflies escaped from the interior gardens. It was so totally fascinating, we made sure every vacation after that had another butterfly garden somewhere we could visit. That one in central Florida was within an hour's drive from Tampa, though. I wish I had a better memory and could remember the name of the town. Seems we visited a cactus garden that was in the shape of the United States and each state had the same cacti species growing in it to give it a separate look from the neighboring states. Those were the days... Butterfly gardens that are outdoors have this little problem--the one not far from here we saw exactly two butterflies the whole time. Our little friends in the Lepidoptera order are shy, are often are not scheduled to escape their cocoons some days, so it's not like the amazing Cockrell Butterfly Garden, the Houston Museum of Natural History, where winged beauties are flitting a yard or two apart all the hours of the day. Cockrell Butterfly Center | Houston Museum Of Natural Science

Damn! I lived in Tampa for nearly 10 years and had no idea they had Butterfly facilities! But I was young back then and only thought about going out dancing and drinking with friends and never in a million gazillion years did I think at that time in my life, I would want to live in a Country setting, rural, away from it ALL and in to Nature, like I do now, way up here!

 

[Care4all]

This is a moth, that comes every year! It waits for days stuck to the screen webbing on the deck gazebo.... days and days and days, just stck to the screening...

THEN....

It's MATE comes.... they do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight!!! hahaha!

But what a beautiful Moth!

Doing the naughty when it's mate showed up

They're beautiful to me, Care4all. Thanks for sharing. Are those Atlas Moths? They sure have fabulous markings.

I have absolutely no idea what they are....? I meant to look them up... but didn't or can't remember if I did at the time!

 

[beautress]

Thanks, Care4all. I hope the Sunshine State puts her best weather foot forward while you are staying there with your parents. Years ago, when my in-laws lived in Tampa, Florida, we visited a Butterfly facility in a large greenhouse with glassed entrance rooms to insure that no butterflies escaped from the interior gardens. It was so totally fascinating, we made sure every vacation after that had another butterfly garden somewhere we could visit. That one in central Florida was within an hour's drive from Tampa, though. I wish I had a better memory and could remember the name of the town. Seems we visited a cactus garden that was in the shape of the United States and each state had the same cacti species growing in it to give it a separate look from the neighboring states. Those were the days... Butterfly gardens that are outdoors have this little problem--the one not far from here we saw exactly two butterflies the whole time. Our little friends in the Lepidoptera order are shy, are often are not scheduled to escape their cocoons some days, so it's not like the amazing Cockrell Butterfly Garden, the Houston Museum of Natural History, where winged beauties are flitting a yard or two apart all the hours of the day. Cockrell Butterfly Center | Houston Museum Of Natural Science

Damn! I lived in Tampa for nearly 10 years and had no idea they had Butterfly facilities! But I was young back then and only thought about going out dancing and drinking with friends and never in a million gazillion years did I think at that time in my life, I would want to live in a Country setting, rural, away from it ALL and in to Nature, like I do now, way up here!

As I recollect, we drove at least an hour going either east or southeast from Tampa. Gosh, Care4all, it's been so many years ago, we may have driven further, but no, It was toward the east, but in central florida somewhere on the road between Tampa and Orlando, let me go look it up...

Found this and hope one or two of these are near your parent's place:

• 
  Butterfly Rainforest
  1052 TripAdvisor reviews
  3215 Hull Rd Florida Museum Of Natural Histor, Gainesville · (352) 846-2000
  Open today 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
• Butterfly World*
  1097 TripAdvisor reviews
  3600 W Sample Rd, Coconut Creek · (954) 977-4400
  Open today 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  
• 
  Lukas Nursery & Butterfly Encounter
  273 TripAdvisor reviews
  1909 Slavia Rd, Oviedo · (407) 365-6163
  Closed now, opens at 8:30 AM
• 
  Tom Allen Memorial Butterfly House
  17 TripAdvisor reviews
  5505 Rose Garden Dr, Cape Coral · (239) 573-3128
  
• 
  Naples Botanical Garden
  3654 TripAdvisor reviews
  4820 Bayshore Drive, Naples · (239) 643-7275
  
  *Don't know where Coconut Creek is, but the new facility is far and away more beautiful than the starter butterfly house we visited, although the gardens in some of the websites' pictures sure do look familiar. I just really don't remember where it was, but all of those places look like a lot of fun if you like butterflies, and the flowers in Florida are always so beautiful and prolific, that in and of themselves, it's worth going to anything that has botanical species in it.
  
  We also saw this cactus map while there, but it was in a different place than the butterfly garden.
  
  
  

  
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[beautress]

Atlas moths:

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[beautress]

Lepidoptera Taxonomic Training
This takes seventeen minutes, well worth it if you are reading a butterfly book you got at Amazon or inherited (I'm so jealous)
You will hear a lot of Latin until around timed minute 3:00, when the pictures begin *sigh*

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[beautress]

Wow. I just watched Dr. Brown's (Mississippi State University, above ^) give his lecture, and it was so fascinating it seemed more like 18 seconds than the 17:48 minutes it spans. *sigh* There are so many fascinating things butterflies do. Some are so tiny, their scholars must identify them with inspection via a magnifying glass, and others by controlling their breathtaking beauty in ourselves to notice how they prosper and which plants they pollinate to keep God's wonderful, wild plant and animal world intact. One specie puts eggs on a yucca plant that Dr. Brown actually kept isolated for 18 years, and each year that the plant bloomed, enough eggs would hatch for the butterfly to pollinate it. What patience his career has brought about in someone truly dedicated to teaching others about the wonderful family members of the Insect Kingdom, and namely, the families in Lepidoptera therein. That's just one of many fascinating things described in how a specie of moths or butterflies, and their close kin, roll. Enjoy! Oh, and if you follow the "youtube" inscription at the bottom, you can go to full screen there. Some of the micro sized members of Lepidoptera are magnified, but full screen shows how amazing they may look, and this is a primary lesson in taxonomy, so it may not specify the exact wingspan in inches, so some of these you may never see even if they surround your front porch light at night or the garage door, only to disappear in daylight to wherever they feed and play. Mostly in winged form, they sip nectar only. And cabbage moths are often only acknowledged if they seek out and find your cruciferous veggies in your garden. Are they black sheep, or do they enable plants to produce viable seeds through the pollination that goes on when the larvae or winged butterflies get up close and personal between the pollen and ova of the plant? Stay tuned...

 

[beautress]

Bolivian Butterflies



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[beautress]

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