Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY PICTURES # 109, 1 by vitrsna

vitrsna wrote:
Thank you lep...here the butterflies you mention are known to favor the Justicia b. and evidently will use Ruellia as well. There are lots of night feeding caterpillars here as well including the Monarchs. At night they are safer from predation by the wasps.

The Malachite is calling my garden home so i think it probably eclosed here. I worked in the garden most of yesterday and it was not bothered by me, maybe because the other butterflies in the garden ignore me, maybe because i did not have my camera with me, and it gave me some spectacular full upper wing spreads...wowser, this is a beauty. During the heavy rain in the early evening, it took shelter under an Areca palm along with a Banded Peacock. I checked the wing span compared with Giant Swallowtails and Monarchs. The Malachite 8.5-10cms (3.3-3.9"), the Giant Swallowtail 10-16 cms (3.9-6.3"), and the Monarch 8.9-10.2 cms (3.5-4"). The White Morpho beats them all with a wing span of 4.5-5.75"

Here is a photo of how it looked in roosting mode, still snoozing at 9:30 am, drying out after the rains.

This message was edited Oct 12, 2014 11:00 AM