Painted Lady!

My granddaughters discovered that Painted Lady butterflies love chive blossoms!  There are several popular orange butterflies, including Monarchs and Red Admirals. To identify the Painted Lady, watch for orange wings with black spots and dramatic black tips with white polka dots on front wings.

Not a large butterfly, the underside of the wings is more of a challenge. But you don’t need to wait very long for a butterfly to open its wings for you. And don’t give up too quickly if the butterfly flies away when you approach. There’s a good chance it will soon return to the flowers it was enjoying when you discovered it.

More butterfly sexing!

Here’s a black swallowtail female on swamp milkweed. She does have lovely blue on her hind wings.

Don’t those look like crooked yellow teeth on his wings? He is enjoying zinnias.

 

Amaze your friends! Tell them the sex of butterflies like this Black Swallowtail!

This is a male Black Swallowtail butterfly. Obvious differences between black swallowtail male and female are found in the big yellow “V” on their wings. The male’s “V” pattern looks like it is composed of a long row of crooked yellow teeth. The female’s “V” is made up of a line of small yellow dots. The female also has more blue on hind wings, similar to the female tiger swallowtail. Swallowtails are easy to observe because they spend a lot of time drinking flower nectar. It doesn’t even take much patience, just some flowers.

Stripes can go in different directions!

Looks like there are stripes on all this wasp’s body parts except the wings. Maybe magnification would find stripes on wings. Do you think the stripes going in different directions is for camouflage? My research indicates it is another kind of paper wasp. Quite elegant! Even if it is sitting on my leg…

Belly up to the bar!

Tiger swallowtail female enjoying butterfly bush!

Same butterfly from the top. Wings in motion. For some reason the female Tiger swallowtail is prettier than the male. She has the wonderful blue. Compare the wing colors from above and below. Amazing differences! Please share with other butterfly lovers.

What do you call a wasp piggy-back ride?

Female wasp giving piggy-back ride to males! Sometimes they carry 2 males on their backs. Please look closely. You can count 6 antennae lower left, just under stack of 3 heads. And 3 abdomens are easy to count on the right.  Similar triple-decker photos were in an earlier blog. These photos demonstrate that it isn’t such a rare occurrence.

Reminds me of a circus act! Please share with your buggy friends.

 

Am I green?

Crab spiders (I think this is one) can change their color based on background.