BACKYARD BUGS

As time permits I will be adding pictures to this section of lepidoptera that I have taken in my yard. As anyone knows who has tried taking pictures of live insects it is a very time consuming, and at times frustrating, experience. There are so many factors involved with taking good quality pictures...the first of which is posing the insect. Let me start by saying that insects DO NOT like to pose. The slightest movements will often cause the insect to try to escape and something as simple as a slight breeze can ruin a picture. What I have presented here is what I think to be the best of the hundreds of pictures I have been taking with my digital camera. As I take more I will post them, hopefully on a weekly basis.

Here are two Mourning Cloaks (Nymphalis antiopa) on confetti lantana.

The Viceroy, displaying its underside.

The Viceroy (Basilarchia archippus), mimic of the Monarch, on white butterfly bush.

This is the same Red-Spotted Purple showing how the sunlight, at a different angle, creates a beautiful metallic blue coloration.

My personal favorite of all of the Rhode Island butterflies, the Red-Spotted Purple (Basilarchia astyanax), on white butterfly bush.

One of Rhode Island's largest butterflies, the Eastern-Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus glaucus). This beautiful female is drinking nectar from a purple butterfly bush.

Again, the same Red-Spotted Purple, showing the undersides of its wings and how the coloration and markings are completely different from the upperwings.

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