five more Butterfly pics (last pic spam post)

[feng_shui_house]

Gulf fritillary is one of the butteries I see nearly all the time. From the top at a distance you might think they're a monarch, but a closer view, or a side view, quickly identifies them.




Zebra longwing is another of my most frequent visitors. (The third is the Julia Heliconia, but the only one I've seen in the past few days has a damaged wing, and when it's a common butterfly, I only want to share perfect photos, so no Julia in this post.) The Zebra longing feeds on pollen as well as nectar, sometimes you can see their whole proboscis coated in yellow pollen. NOM NOM NOM.





The giant swallowtail is a rare visitor- I hope to see more of them now that folks can once more plant citrus, which their caterpillars need to feed on. (For a long time home garden citrus was being destroyed by the local government in a really badly thought out attempt to save commercial growers, hundreds of miles away, from a plant disease. Instead of preserving plants resistant to it, they chopped up every citrus (or even things that LOOKED like citrus- one enormous gardenia bush was destroyed causing a lot of screaming by the owner) they could find, even healthy, isolated plants, and the choppers drove around in open bed trucks, scattering contaminated foliage everywhere...so, you know... genius plan actually spread the disease further, and after a decade of expensive destruction, they rescinded the order that said you couldn't have a backyard citrus tree. So I have hope people are planting them and the 'yellow dogs' (that's what the giant swallowtail caterpillars are called) will return.)

Comments

[vera_j]

I am shocked - they did this to citrus plants? Oh dear, I have no words...With each disappeared plant, the species dependent on it desappear...

But these butterflies are fantastic ans very beautiful, very exotic too.
Thank you for the show and the comments, is is precious!

[feng_shui_house]

I'm glad you enjoyed the pics. :^)