Butterflies - Royalty & Ladies

Royal butterflies? Well, we have a Monarch, a Queen and an Empress. There is an Emperor or two but I haven't seen him, yet. Next, we have very important rulers and commanders like the Admirals and the Viceroy. Lastly, we have the Ladies - American Lady, Painted Lady and West Coast Lady. So far, I have seen only one Lady. I thought I had a picture of the Painted Lady but alas I don't. The difference between the American Lady and Painted Lady is so small, that I had misidentified some of my pictures for awhile.

You can see that some them are closely related when they have the same first Latin or Scientific name.

All of these butterflies are in the Brush-footed family.

Monarch - Danaus plexippus

Queen - Danaus gilippus

Empress Leilia - Asterocampa leilia

American Lady - Vanessa virginiensis

Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta

White Admiral - Limenitis arthemis arthemis

Red-spotted Purple - Limenitis arthemis astyanax

Viceroy - Limenitis achippus

This is my last butterfly blog for a little while. I will next do a series on Reptiles and Amphibians.

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies through Binoculars The West
Butterflies of the Great Lakes

All images © MSCI

Butterflies - Blues

Another family of butterflies is called Gossamer-winged because of the sheer appearance of the wings. In this group, there are sub-families of hairstreaks, blues, coppers, and more.

Have you ever noticed while walking or hiking, a very tiny bright blue flash out of the corner of your eye. You stop to look for it and can't find it. Well, it is probably a little blue butterfly, that flashes its blue when the wings are open. When it is sitting at rest, there is no blue color to be seen because they usually sit with their wings closed. Also, these little blue butterflies are so fast and soooo... small. Most are no bigger than 1/2" - 1" when sitting.

Now, try taking a picture of them! I creep as close as I can and then it darts away before I can focus the camera. I have to look again for this little blue, that really is only displaying its pale gray wings. But when I have a photo, it is so much fun to magnify this image and see the beautiful details of orange and black spots and little threadlike tails or hairstreaks. And it is the spots (color, shape, position and number) and tails that you need to see to identify them.

All of these images are larger than life size so imagine trying to find them or focus your camera on them.

Gray Hairstreak (with tails) - Strymon melinus

Reakirt's Blue - Hemiargus isola

Reakirt's Blue (female) - Hemiargus isola

Eastern Tailed-Blue (with tails) - Everes comyntas

Eastern Tailed-Blue - Everes comyntas

Spring Azure - Celastrina ladon

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies through Binoculars The West
Butterflies of the Great Lakes
Caterpillars of Eastern North America
Caterpilliars in the Field and Garden

All images © MSCI

Butterflies - Crescents

On our Texas trip, every time I saw an orange and black butterfly, I tried to photograph it. I was sure that they were mostly duplicates. To my surprise, I had 5 new species. They sure looked alike in the field but when I studied them carefully, the patterns of orange and black and white were different.

These butterflies are all in the Brush-footed family, Nymphalidae. I just learned that all butterflies in this family have one distinctive characteristic. The forelegs of the adult butterfly are greatly reduced in size, covered with short hairs, and useless for walking. They appear to have only 4 legs. In the male butterfly, the forelegs are so small that they are like hairy stumps which suggest a tiny bottle brush. Hence, the family name.

The Monarch belongs to this family, so next time you see a Monarch butterfly, see if you can only count 4 legs because it is very difficult to see the stumps in the field.

Theona Checkerspot - Chlosyne theona

Bordered Patch - Chlosyne lacinia

Texan Crescent - Phyciodes texana

Phaon Crescent - Phyciodes phaon

Painted Crescent - Phyciodes picta

Pearl Crescent - Phyciodes tharos

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies through Binoculars The West
Butterflies of the Great Lakes
Caterpillars of Eastern North America
Caterpilliars in the Field and Garden

All images © MSCI

Butterflies - Swallowtails

There are 6 families of butterflies. Aside from the Monarch butterfly, the ones easiest to recognize are the swallowtails. The family name is because most of the species have tails. I don't understand the "swallow" part though, because of all the swallows, only the barn swallow has a long forked tail.

These large butterflies are pretty hard to photograph because they dart in all directions and, so far, I have only captured 4 of 20 or so species in North America. I have seen several other species both on the travels and at home. But where is the camera when the butterfly is sitting still? And where is the butterfly when I am chasing it?

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - Papilio glaucus

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (female) - Papilio glaucus

Giant Swallowtail - Papilio cresphontes

Giant Swallowtail - Papilio cresphontes

Pipevine Swallowtail - Battus philenor

Pipevine Swallowtail (male) - Battus philenor

Spicebush Swallowtail - Papilio troilus

Spicebush Swallowtail - Papilio troilus

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies through Binoculars The West
Butterflies of the Great Lakes
Caterpillars of Eastern North America
Caterpilliars in the Field and Garden

All images © MSCI

Purple Asters and Visitors

I have some purple New England asters growing in front of our deck. Sometimes I sit with the camera in hand and watch the various visitors to the flowers.

Cabbage Butterfly - female with 2 black spots on its wings

Bumble Bee

Free wallpaper (desktop background) for personal use

Click on above picture, then on next picture right-click and set as background

Bumble Bee with pollen sack on its leg

Flower Fly - looks like a wasp but its not

Honey Bee

Honey Bee with a pollen sack on its leg

Clouded Sulphur - male

Clouded Sulphur - female

Virginia Ctenucha - this is a moth

Sweat Bee

Silver-spotted Skipper

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies of the Great Lakes
Caterpillars of Eastern North America

All images © MSCI

Butterflies

On Sunday, I saw a Common Buckeye Junonia coenia on my New England Asters. It co-operated for me by feeding for more than an hour, so that I could watch and photograph (until I could not edit any more images - over 50). My daughter says I saw one in her insect collection 20 years ago but I have not seen one again, until now. It sure is pretty.

All summer I have been taking pictures of butterflies in my garden. The Monarch Danaus plexippus remains a favorite, especially when it poses on my butterfly weed.

At Luddington State Park, couple of weekends ago, I saw a Monarch caterpillar on its favorite food, a milkweed plant.
I took the next picture on the Keweenaw Peninsula, in Upper Michigan last summer. I thought I was taking a picture of a Monarch and it wasn't until I was reviewing my photos, that I recognized that it was not a Monarch at all! It was a Viceroy Limenitis archippus which mimics the Monarch. I have never before seen a Viceroy in the field. Notice the black bar across the hind wing on the Viceroy.

I also took some pictures of the Red-spotted Purple Limenitis arthemtis feeding on my Purple cone flower. Again, I did not know what butterfly this was. While reviewing my pictures, I remembered a similar butterfly that I had seen in Texas this spring. When seen from the side as in these 2 photos, the Red-spotted Purple is similar to the Pipevine Swallowtail Battus philenor. Their ranges overlap only along the Gulf states in southern US, but I don't keep range maps in my head (that's why I own books). Now that I have worked with my photos so much, I hope to remember the differences between these butterflies.


I don't know if you have the same problem as I have: that it doesn't matter how many times I have studied the flower, butterfly, or bird in a book, it is not until I have see it live in the field that I can remember its identification marks and recognize it the next time.

Happy butterflying! (Yes, it will become an accepted verb soon!)

The references and gear I used for this blog are:

Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies of the Great Lakes
Caterpillars of Eastern North America
Caterpilliars in the Field and Garden