You are currently browsing the insects category.
Every year I grow these tall, leggy, tithonias. Not just because they have beautiful saucer sized blooms, (although they do!) but also because I LOVE watching the big fat bumble bees wallow in the pollen.
It’s about the only color we have left this time of year because everything else is burned up by the summer heat. They grow so tall I have to pull one over and tie it to a porch post to be able to see the blooms and bees.
When I “googled” black and white butterflies I could not find this one. I literally had to buy a book to find that it is a Skipper (Pontia protodice) found commonly in Florida (even though it is the first and only one that I have seen so far). Oh, it’s a female; the male has less of the markings, and the first time in nature I have found the female of a species to be more colorful than the male!
I’m not sure, but it does look like an eyelash on the right side of the photo.
Who knew that they had such individual faces?! And that’s not all, did you know that they lay their eggs in or near water sometimes submerging themselves to put eggs on a good surface. But wait, did you know that while in the nymph form (before they leave the water to fly) they breath thru gills in their rectum and they move themselves rapidly by propelling water thru the anus! No, I’m not making this up! Straight from Wikipedia!
The Zebra Swallowtail is from the genus Eurytides, the so-called kite swallowtails. They are frequently found gathering at small mud puddles.
The Two-Tailed Tiger Swallowtail probably gets the most oohs! and aahhs! of all the butterflies. Its large size and beautiful colors account for this.
Skippers are the less glamorous group of butterflies and therefore have not been as well studied as some of their beautiful sisters. They tend to be gray, brown,black,white, or dull orange in coloration.
The Gulf Fritillary will visit your garden if you plant nectar flowers like lantana along with food plants such as passionflower vines.
The Brushfoot is the most diverse of the families of butterflies as it has approximately 6000 known species. They appear to have 4 instead of the standard 6 legs as the 2 front ones are so much shorter.
The Black Swallowtail on thistle