Just showing pretty photos from the archives today.

Enjoy!

An example is the insect that caused the webbing on this Texas Mountain Laurel. Can you spot it?

Here’s a closer view. This photo has two insects in it.

This is the genista caterpillar. Once it completes the pupal stage, it will turn into a small brown moth (Family Pyralidae).

How do you think the moth finds the Texas Mountain Laurel plant?

Monarchs are beautiful butterflies.

There’s evidence in this photograph about the gender of the butterfly, and about the weather that day. What do you think?

If you are interested in the long migrations made by monarch butterflies, take a look at the NOVA TV program The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies. When I first went to this link there was only a preview, but today you can watch what looks like the entire the show.  I hope to finish it soon.

After the show, you might want to pick up one of these. There are a lot of great children’s books about monarch butterflies.

After being beige for about two weeks, the chrysalis turned black.

We could see the pattern of the wings inside. Later in the afternoon:

We took it outside to finish pumping up its wings.

Is there anything more beautiful than a freshly emerged butterfly?

Wishing you all the best.

Look what the queen butterfly left in our yard this week.

Scientists have speculated that the fancy patterns on the edges of butterfly wings may look like caterpillars. What do you think? (The idea is that birds will peck at the edges of the wings, allowing the butterfly to escape.)

Some of the butterflies were not ready to pose.

Others were very cooperative.

Although I learned a lot about butterflies this weekend, I mostly learned how little I know. There are many more butterfly species out there than I ever imagined.

For more information, try:

Dave Powell has Arizona Butterflies, identified to species.

Finding Butterflies in Arizona: A Guide to the Best Sites by Richard Bailowitz (Author), Hank Brodkin (Author, Photographer), Priscilla Brodkin (Photographer), Kenn Kaufman (Foreword)

Butterflies of Arizona: A Photographic Guide by Hank Brodkin, Priscilla Brodkin and Bob Stewart

Arizona Butterflies & Moths: An Introduction to Familiar Species (A Pocket Naturalist Guide) by James Kavanagh and Raymond Leung (Illustrator)

Butterflies through Binoculars: The West A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Western North America (Butterflies and Others Through Binoculars Field Guide Series.) by Jeffrey Glassberg

Our tried-and-true favorite craft is making a coffee filter butterfly.

Gather:

• Basket-style coffee filters
• Markers (not permanent)
• Paintbrushes
• Water
• Newspaper or paper towels
• Large paper clips
• Chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
• Yarn (optional)

Lay some newspapers or paper towels on a waterproof work surface to prevent marker stains. Have the children color on the coffee filter with the markers. Then lightly “paint” over the marker with water. The colors should spread together. Allow the coffee filters to dry while you read a favorite story about butterflies. Then find the middle of one side of the coffee filter and start to feed the filter into the paperclip. Gather the center into the paperclip, forming a body. In the past I had used chenille stems (pipe cleaners), but found the paper clip forms a more stable body that allows for the attachment of the antennae, which is piece of chenille stem (pipe cleaner) twisted on. You can also attach a fairly long piece of yarn (1 ½ or two feet) so the butterfly can hang in front of a window or “fly” along behind a child. You might want to make a whole bunch.

By the way, did you know chenille is French for caterpillar? Seems appropriate.

If you want to add some science, take a look at some pictures of butterflies. Notice that butterflies often have spots or patterns at the edges of the wings. Some people have suggested that those spots help protect the butterfly because they entice birds to peck at the margins of the wings, allowing the butterfly to escape.

If you are ready for more, Enchanted Learning has a lot of butterfly crafts for the younger set.

For the older set, this video might give you some ideas.

Paperstudio.com making paper butterflies

Hope this gives you some good ideas. Enjoy!

It’s in the low 50’s this morning, so the first butterflies I saw were basking on a wall with their wings directed to catch the sun. They are like mini-solar panels.

Why are they basking? Insects bask in the sun to warm the flights muscles prior to flying.

I knew where there were some lantana plants in the sun, so I went to see what was going on there.

More painted lady butterflies basking and drinking nectar. They weren’t cooperative at first, but after sitting still on a cold sidewalk for a few minutes, I was able to get a few good shots.

Here’s one basking on a Texas sage.

Seeing all these beautiful butterflies was a real charge for me. I hope other people notice them too.

If you are interested in learning more, or if you see painted ladies migrating and you’d like to participate in a study, check out the 2008 Vanessa Migration Project.

You should cheer because they are the caterpillars of the beautiful pipevine swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor). We found these at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona.

The bright red caterpillars will turn into one of these butterflies.

Check out the gorgeous metallic blue on the lower parts.

I should admit right away that it is extremely difficult to get a good photograph of a pipevine swallowtail butterfly. The butterflies have a behavior known as “flutter feeding” which mean their wings are in almost constant motion. This one was on the floor in a public place, so I suspect it may have been stepped on. Too bad.

The caterpillars of the pipevine swallowtail feed on plants called pipevines (Aristolochia species), hence the name. The plant is a small, drab vine and is hard to spot. I am grateful to my friend who pointed out this one. Edit: My friend says this plant is Aristolochia watsonii.

The plants contain a nasty chemical called aristolochoic acid that deters most animals from feeding on them. The ability to feed on pipevine plants is a unique feature of these caterpillars.

The caterpillars change size and color as they grow. You may also see pipevine caterpillars that look like the ones above, but are black instead of red.  The larger, older caterpillars are often found resting on plants besides their hosts (the ones they feed on). The caterpillar above is not on a pipevine.

On the same day we also saw this little butterfly.

This is the adult of the bordered patch (Chlosyne lacinia). In some books it might be called a lacinia checkerspot. This little guy is really quite battered.

The bordered patch species is also quite variable in color, like the caterpillars of the pipevine. The North American Butterfly Association has a page of photographs of members of this species. You will see this dark color version towards the bottom. How did anyone ever figure out they were all the same species?

I was not surprised to learn the bordered patch caterpillars feed on sunflowers (as well as ragweed). Here is the garden that was only a few feet away from where I found the butterfly. If you want to raise butterflies, just plant a few of these.