On dull days, look out for butterflies resting on grass stems. Most of the blues are restricted to some special places, mostly in the south of England, but the common blue can be found throughout the country. The holly blue is a frequent garden visitor in England and lowland parts of Wales, feeding on holly and ivy.
From seeing colourful wildflowers to spotting magnificent birds of prey, we can help you get closer to wildlife across the UK. Despite its name, the large blue is a fairly small butterfly, but the largest of our blues.
It was declared extinct in , but…. You can see the red-orange spots on the edges of this red-spotted purple's wings. The red-spotted purple Limenitis arthemis astyanax is a forest butterfly commonly seen in suburban wooded areas. These butterflies are large, with a wing span of 3 to 3. The wings are a striking blue-black color.
On the outer edges of their wings you can see rows of white and red-orange spots; these spots give the butterfly its name. The preferred host plants for these butterflies are black cherry and deerberry.
The red-spotted purple butterfly is a mimic of the poisonous pipevine swallowtail butterfly. The two eyespots on this cassius blue are a brilliant irridescent blue.
The cassius blue Leptotes cassius is a tiny butterfly found most commonly in Central and South Florida, particularly along the coasts. These butterflies are sometimes called tropical striped blue butterflies. While cassius blues have been seen in northern counties, they are cold sensitive and unable to survive a North Florida winter. These butterflies have an average wingspan of just under an inch wide. Their wings are white with grey stripes and two eyespots are visible when closed.
When open, the wings are bluish white at the top. Host plants for the cassius blue caterpillar include a variety of vines, shrubs, and trees in the pea family Fabaceae. This includes milkpeas, blackbeads, hairy cowpea, false tamarind, and Jamaican dogwood. While not a member of the pea family, plumbago is also a caterpillar host plant for the cassius blue. Up this close, you can see the letter M under the red spot on this white M hairstreak.
The white M hairstreak Parrhasius m-album has only a glimpse of metallic blue on their wings when folded together, but when open they are almost completely blue, with black edges. Yes, I agree to receive occasional emails from the Rainforest Alliance. Threats Blue morphos are severely threatened by deforestation of tropical forests and habitat fragmentation. Sources Jukofsky, Diane.
Encyclopedia of Rainforests. Connecticut: Oryx Press, Saint Louis Zoo. Tags: Environmental Curriculum for Schools. You Might Also Like Species Profile Monarch Butterfly. They are a striking and valuable part of the life on our planet, so it's worth your time to be able to identify butterflies when you see them!
There are more than different butterfly species in North America, and many live in specific ecosystems that the average person rarely visits. The butterflies that have adapted to man-made environments like parks and gardens are the ones you will see the most. Many of these are quite beautiful, and seeing them up close on a sunny day can be a real event.
If you can identify the butterfly you're looking at, the experience will be that much richer. The magnificent Monarch may be the most well-known and best-loved of all our insects.
There is something truly regal about its size, bright colors, and powerful, soaring flight, but its kingly name supposedly comes from the spotted margins of its wings, which resemble the sable-edged robes worn by royalty at the time of its discovery.
Nearly everyone has seen monarchs and is familiar with their mind-boggling migrations and million-butterfly roosting in the mountain forests of Mexico. But there are more reasons to be fascinated with this species. For one thing, it is thought that the poisonous sap in milkweed, the monarch's only food source, makes it distasteful to predators like birds.
This may be one reason why so many butterflies are orange—they are evolving to resemble the monarch so birds will think twice before eating them, even if they are perfectly edible. This is the idea behind mimicry, and if the theory is accurate, then the monarch is not only big and beautiful, but highly influential as well. It's hard to believe that this insect is completely unrelated to the monarch.
The viceroy gets its name from its resemblance to the popular monarch butterfly they're both royalty—get it? They are so similar that this butterfly's identification relies largely on a quite minor difference in the hindwing markings.
The viceroy is one of the most well-known cases of mimicry among North American butterflies the viceroy's relatives are nearly all black or dark blue. The thinking among experts is that the monarch, which eats milkweed, is made poisonous by the caustic sap in the milkweed plant.
This means that birds and other predators who have tried a nasty-tasting orange butterfly in the past will think twice when confronted with another one.
Many butterflies in the monarch's range are orange like the monarch, possibly to gain protection from the resemblance, but the viceroy really takes it to an extreme. The red-spotted purple is closely related to—get this—the viceroy the monarch-mimicking red-and-black butterfly pictured above. Even better, this pretty black-and-blue butterfly is believed to mimic the poisonous pipeline swallowtail check this species out further down.
That makes the Limenitis genus a pretty amazing bunch of copy-cats, adapting over millions of years to resemble animals that are poisonous and protected from predators. The red-spotted purple is especially beautiful on the underside, so if you ever get to see one up close, you'll want to keep your camera handy.
Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly Speyeria cybele. This bright orange butterfly wings fast across fields and around forest edges in mid- to late summer. Some researchers think its orange color is meant to mimic the poisonous monarch butterfly's colors; if so, that makes it yet another in the orange-butterfly mimic category that may also include over a dozen unrelated species.
The great spangled has lovely silver spots on the underside, which gives the insect its common name. There are many similar, related species that occur across our area, many of which are quite rare and limited to specific areas in the mountainous western states. These big, beautiful butterflies can be identified by their bold yellow-and-black stripes, hence their common name. These tigers have an unusual life history. The adults are on the wing in mid-summer, wheeling high among the branches of ash and cherry trees, where the big females lay their eggs.
The caterpillar, which is green with little "false eye" spots near its head, feeds until it is about half grown, and then builds a little shelter by pulling together the edges of a leaf. It overwinters in this shelter, and in the spring emerges to continue feeding. It will pupate in early summer, and then the adults hatch to complete the process.
Another interesting fact about the tiger swallowtail is that some females, especially in the southern parts of its range, are almost all a smokey, dark brown in color. They hardly even look like tigers. Experts have suggested that the reason for this "dimorphic" phase is in order to mimic the bad-tasting pipevine swallowtail, which is generally more common in the south than in the north.
This beautiful insect is the northernmost species of a large tropical genus Battus that includes some of the most striking swallowtail butterflies in the tropics, which is saying something. The pipeline swallowtail is generally limited to the southern states, but it has been spotted as far south as Mexico and as far north as Manitoba, especially later in the summer as multiple broods spread north.
This insect is believed to be the model for a number of other species that mimic its blue-on-black coloring.
The larvae and the adult may be poisonous or distasteful to predators like birds and lizards, making it a good idea to look the same whether or not you yourself are poisonous.
Like the pipevine swallowtail above , this is a generally southern species that sometimes ranges as far north as Canada. The caterpillar closely resembles a large bird dropping, which would serve to deter birds and other predators. In the American South, these big caterpillars are often called "orange dogs" for their choice of food plant: citrus trees, especially orange and lemon.
In some cases they can cause damage to young trees. The sight of a big, beautiful giant swallowtail swooping around your garden plants is one you are not likely to soon forget! This beautiful insect aptly named, with black stripes on a clear white background. Like the giant swallowtail above , it is a northern representative of a group of butterflies that have many varieties throughout the Neotropics. You will seldom find this species outside of the southern states, but it will sometimes wander north, for example along the Mississippi River Valley.
Like all other swallowtails, the flight is strong and gliding, but they will often stop to nectar. At these times you may see several visiting the same nectar source. Males also participate in a behavior known as "puddling," which is when a group of butterflies congregates at wet sand or mud to draw nutrients.
0コメント