I am not heavily into butterflies, but do love to watch them. These blue beauties, which I think are rare, I've rarely seen a blue butterfly, have been visiting my fallen apples every day. Anyone know their name?
Anyone know a name?
Hi, mvespa ..
I'm still very much an amateur at this ID'ing stuff maseff .. but I bleeve ya got the 'Red-spotted Purple' form of the Admiral butterflies (Basilarchia astyanax).
A beautiful flutterbye .. and, quite a nice shot ya fetch'd, to boot!
See if any of these sites may can hep ya out a bit .. Tons of fun tryin' to ID these flighty beauties!!
http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/construct-species-page.asp?sp=Limenitis-arthemis#phototable-1
Also ..
http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/construct-group-page.asp?gr=All
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm
http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/butterfl4.htm
. . . Enjoy . . . !!
- Magpye
Magpye,
great to hear from you. Where have you been, we've missed you.
I agree with you that mvespa's beatiful butterfly picture is the Red-spotted Purple
Ken
Ahh Ken .. truly soooo good to 'see' you too!
Have sure missed quite a few of you guys also!!
Ken .. now, YOU of all folk, should know .. that we DGers are blessed with some purty darn'd fantasticly valuable mentors to 'look up to' .. Thanks, for being t/here fer us Ken!
I haint gonna take up time and space on [mvespa's] thread .. except to state, most quickly > that we'd spent the majority of the summer out in New Mexico.
Mitey sweet of ya fer askin', and sure appreciate yer missin' my ol mug, to boot! .. (LOL) ..
Good to be back home .. fer sure!! ..
mvespa .. Keep on shootin' them flutterbyes. Looks like they be posin' plum dandily fer ya. I've found that these here .. plop themselves down into the rocks on our driveway .. apparently find either some moisture and/or some needed minerals there.
Noticed a small 'slew' of either the 'Commas' or 'Question Marks' .. settin' down on the driveway rocks .. (and flock to ol P'nuts doodle piles too) !!
- Magpye
Thanks Magpye and Ken! I thought it was odd that they kept bypassing the Lantana, which is right next to where I shot the pic. All the other butterflies like the Lantana, but these cuties just landed on the rocks. I thought it might be because it is right under my apple tree which has lots of rotting apples under it. I thought that they might be searching for some of the apple nectar coming off the rotting apples.
Here's a shot of the two of them. One of them has the orange spots like in the links that Magpye posted.
Hee ... the rottenin' fruit is certainly a magnet for most all of the butterfly vermin!
What surprises me .. is when they have a 'set down' in the rocks .. for what appears (to ME), to be .. no apparent reason .. other than jes a good ol rest !! LOL
- Magpye
Those are absolutely beautiful... maybe I should be hiding near our apple tree and see what I can observe... altho my dog thinks the fallen apples are balls to be played with, so I don't know how many are left under the tree....
Beautiful pics! I'm jealous, since I've never seen one. I don't think we have them in my neck of the woods.
They actually are feeding from the rocks. It's called "puddling". They get nutrients (mainly sodium) from the minerals in the dirt and rocks, even when the water has dried. They are able to "exude saliva", spit, thru their probiscus and suck it back up with the nutrients. I've read that it's usually males seen puddling because they need extra salts and minerals for mating.
Very interesting - thanks for sharing!