Category: butterflies (Page 20 of 43)

Bug of the Week: Favorite Photographs of 2014

What better way to ring out 2014 than with some photographs of insects?

boxelder-bugs-group

Looking back over the last twelve months, I found I haven’t taken as many photographs of insects as in years past. I did, however, take quite a few of true bugs this year, like these boxelder bugs.

milkweed-bugs

Not the best shot, but I thought these milkweed bugs were amusing.

 

orange-fly-on-nasturtium-closer

Maybe it was color that caught my eye, as with this orange on orange composition.

covered-with-pollen-bee

Bees are always fun, although they are usually in motion. Check out this leafcutter bee collecting pollen.

bee-with-pollen-full

She has filled her scopa (hairs on the underside of the abdomen)!

bee-in-cactus-flower-close

This one is reminding us that bees feed on nectar as well as collect pollen.

parasitoid-wasp-crop

Parasitic wasps can be colorful.

wasp-for-list

Paper wasps sometimes take a break to do some cleaning.

ladybug-in-queen-annes-lace

What year is complete without a ladybug?

paper-kite-Idea-leuconoe-111

But the butterflies always give the brightest displays. This is a paper kite.

White Peacock Anartia jatrophae

Here is a white peacock catching some rays.

best-monarch-yet

You can get some beautiful close-ups in butterfly exhibits.

glorious-sulfur

The unexpected shots in your own back yard, however, are always the most treasured.

Do you have a post of your favorite nature photographs, too? Feel free to leave a link in the comments.

Happy New Year!

 

 

Bug of the Week: Thanksgiving Butterflies

Interested in butterflies?

sulfur-butterfly-23

The Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, Arizona is a butterfly paradise.

dog-face-butterfly-234Our family visited over the Thanksgiving holiday and we saw at least a dozen different species, including this dogface butterfly.

tattered-queen-butterfly

What a fragile-looking queen!

black-swallowtail-larva-Papilio polyxenes-22

Why so many butterflies? The arboretum is teeming with a wide diversity of plants that support caterpillars, like this black swallowtail larva I found on dill in the herb garden.

There’s no need to go to a butterfly museum or exhibit when you can have the same experience in a natural setting!

Where is your favorite place to see butterflies?

Bug of the Week: Mystery Caterpillar

This caterpillar has me stumped.

unknown caterpillarIt is resting on a vining milkweed plant, although it might have crawled to there from some other type of plant nearby.

unknown-caterpillar-2

It looks like it has a single, spiky horn, which would be a sphinx moth of some sort. The head doesn’t look any sphinx moth I’ve seen.

Anyone have any ideas what it might be?

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