Second consecutive blog post about insects, this one is a little more positive. Selectively, at least.
I was waiting at the bus stop and something flew into the shelter. A butterfly, it had black wings with little orange spots. I'm not positive but it looked like it could be a dark morph of the eastern tiger swallowtail, which was kind of cool. Of course I'm sure it found someplace it wanted to be more than the bus shelter.
2 comments:
Your description of the butterfly does sound very like a dark morph female, a very beautiful member of the family. When I looked at the pictures there was a group of males 'puddling' which I read as pudding the first time. Puddling is apparently when a group will gather on something they find juicy - for them, not us.
A book I enjoyed called Freckles by the naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter featured a number of rare moths and butteflies in the Limberlost Swamp. Set in Indiana at the turn of the 20th century it's a very lovely story with enough drama to stop it being completely maudlin. I got it because it was one of your grandmother's favorites - well, Girl of the Limberlost was so I got that one too.
Hopefully, your butterfly found a better spot to sit. Nice of it to come and say hello.
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ps: The new comment format is a bit strange. Was the change on purpose?
"Puddling" is a colorful term. After all, puddles aren't generally made up of things that can up and fly away. Raindrops go on a journey but it's one way. But it's probably a good sign if they can find something juicy and tasty. It means that the local plant life is generally in good shape.
The title Girl of the Limberlost feels like something I've heard of before, but otherwise both of these books are new to me. I had to look up whether Gene Stratton-Porter was a man or a woman. (The latter.) Indiana is at an interesting juncture in North America where it has several different kinds of biome. Variety is the spice of life, even if you don't associate Hoosier cooking with spices.
It was a surprising but not unpleasant visit, part of the surprise coming from the fact that the shelter's metal backing is somewhat rusty. But it (the butterfly) seemed to have good direction.
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Text is now larger and more legible when you're typing, but it's weird to go from the extremely narrow comment box to the wide paragraphs you wind up with.
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