Archive for the ‘Butterflies’ Category
Common Buckeye Butterfly (Junonia coenia) — Image by kenne
So, I begin researching articles on butterfly color and found “The evolution of color:
How butterfly wings can shift in hue” in ScienceDaily. They found that buckeyes
and other Junonia species can create a rainbow of structural colors simply by tuning
the thickness of the wing scale’s bottom layer (the lamina), which creates
iridescent colors in the same way a soap bubble does.
“In each Junonia species, structural color came from the lamina. And they are producing
a big range of lamina thicknesses that create a rainbow of different colors, everything
from gold to magenta to blue to green,” says first author Rachel Thayer.
“This helps us understand how structural color has evolved over millions of years.”
You can find more information structured color at Marine Biological Laboratory.
(Please note, I’m a photographer, not a biologist.)
— kenne
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Two-tailed Swallowtail Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
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Swallowtail Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
You pull over to the shoulder
of the two-lane
road and sit for a moment wondering
where you are going
in such a hurry. The valley is burned
out, the oaks
dream day and night of rain
which never comes.
At noon or just before noon
the short shadows
are gray and hold what little
life survives.
In the still heat the engine
clicks, although
the real heat is hours ahead.
You get out and step
cautiously over a low wire
fence and begin
the climb up the yellowed hill.
A hundred feet
ahead the trunks of two
fallen oaks
rust: something passes over
them, a lizard
perhaps or a trick of sight.
The next tree
you pass is unfamiliar,
the trunk dark,
as black as an olive’s; the low
branches stab
out, gnarled and dull; a carob
or a Joshua tree.
A sudden flaring up ahead,
a black-winged
bird rises from nowhere,
white patches
underneath it wings, and is gone.
— from Magpiety by Philip Levine
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Black Swallowtail (08/29/14) — Images by kenne
year twenty-twenty
a year not soon forgotten
crawl on our bellies
— kenne
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Southern Dogface — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye and ear, — both what they half-create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.
— from Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour by William Wordsworth
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Texas Crescent Butterfly — Image by kenne
I like writing about where I am,
where I happen to be sitting,
the humidity or the clouds,
the scene outside the window—
a pink tree in bloom,
a neighbor walking his small, nervous dog.
And if I am drinking
a cup of tea at the time
or a small glass of whiskey,
I will find a line to put it on.
— from In the Room of a Thousand Miles by Billy Collins
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Texas Crescent Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
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Arizona Sister Butterfly (08/16/13) — Image by kenne
In deep shady canyons within the Sonoran Desert and more commonly at higher elevations the Arizona Sister
is a common and welcome sight. The caterpillars use a variety of oak species as a host plant.
In the photo at left there are two adult Arizona Sister butterflies drawing sap from a wound in the trunk
of an old oak tree. A closer look will also reveal two additional butterflies, well camouflaged.
The two are Asterocampa leilia, Desert Hackberry Butterfly. — arizonensis.org
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Golden Banded Skipper — Image by kenne
The golden banded-skipper has many similar species in its range such as
the Sonoran banded-skipper (Autochton pseudocellus), the Sierra Madre
banded-skipper (Autochton siermadror), the Chisos banded-skipper
(Autochton cincta), the dark-fringed banded-skipper (Autochton vectolucis),
the spiky banded-skipper (Autochton neis), the two-spotted banded-skipper
(Autochton bipunctatus), the sharp banded-skipper (Autochton zarex), and
the narrow banded-skipper (Autochton longipennis). — Wikipedia
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Southern Dogface Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Southern Dogface Butterfly is a frequent visitor at flowers and damp soil in riparian habitats
in the Sonoran Desert but is very wary and not easily approached. When alighted the wings
are normally held verticle over the body, obscuring the dogface pattern on the top side of the forewing.
— arizonensis.org
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Nais Metalmark Butterfly — Image by kenne
There are several species of small butterflies with an orange-brown base color, marked with black,
white and brighter orange. The metalmarks such as this one also have some metallic-looking specks
that are visible with changing light angle.
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Marine Blue Butterfly — Image by kenne
This butterfly can be identified as a Marine Blue by the narrow cream and broader brown bands
on its ventral wing surfaces and the two small eye-spots on the hindwings.
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Is It A Queen Or Monarch Butterfly? May Guess, Queen. — Image by kenne
Similar, to monarchs, queens (Danaus gilippus thersippus) migrate in and out of the desert southwest.
Unlike monarchs, queens can be abundantly common in the desert southwest of central to SE Arizona west to California.
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American Snout Butterflies — Image by kenne
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