Butterfly
Kathleen Spivey has caught on film a vampire butterfly in the act of feeding! If you look at the larger size, you can actually see the gigantic fang stabbing into the hapless victim. Fortunately for us, the flower won’t rise from the grave as a ravenous undead itself; that only happens when the vampire bites another butterfly.
I’m actually not certain on the identity of this butterfly species (the astute reader will already know this: the less I know, the more baloney I make up), but I love this proboscis shot. The proboscis coils up out of the way when not in use. In some species it is actually split in two, and the two halves are sort of “zipped” together into a drinking straw when the butterfly finds a flower. I have got to get some pictures of that someday.
Until then, here’s this gorgeous shot from Kathleen.
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
JFargo said,
April 16, 2008 @ 10:28 am
Does anyone know of plants that attract butterflies? I’ve been working on getting some potted lemon grass to keep away mosquitoes, but would love to attract some pretty things to the yard.
I love this shot, Kathleen! The timing was perfect, and it’s all around beautiful.
David Brady said,
April 16, 2008 @ 10:32 am
I just realized that what this photo needs is a little mp3 of the sound your straw makes when you reach the bottom of the milkshake. Schluuurrprplplplpplpe….
tceisele said,
April 16, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
JFargo: Well, milkweed certainly draws Monarch butterflies. I’ve never tried to grow Butterfly bush, but it supposedly draws butterflies like nobody’s business.
I know that Fuchsia draws sphinx moths during the night (and hummingbirds during the day), so that might be good, too.
David Brady said,
April 16, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
tceisele: Does milkweed actually draw monarch butterflies? I know it draws the caterpillars because it contains the toxin they build up. (I’m not challenging you, I’m just asking. I honestly don’t know. I could see them wanting to lay their eggs on/near milkweed, but I imagine they’d go look for flower nectar for feeding.)
tceisele said,
April 16, 2008 @ 12:54 pm
Yes, the adult monarchs like the milkweed blossoms, too. There is a big patch of milkweed that I bicycle past on my way to work during the summer, and once they bloom there’s generally a bunch of adult monarchs working the blossoms all day. I expect they alternate drinking the nectar and laying eggs on the leaves.
David Brady said,
April 16, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Ah, very cool! Funny, I grew up near a pasture full of milkweed, and while I remember playing with the pods (and the sap; I was a bit of a mischiefmaker back then) I don’t remember seeing their blossoms. Perhaps I just never played out there in Springtime, more likely I just never considered the flowers especially notable (unlike the pods, which were really neat).
Scott said,
April 17, 2008 @ 7:24 am
Awesome shot.
JFargo said,
April 17, 2008 @ 10:14 am
Thanks for the ideas tceisele!