Rob's plants home garden plants wildlife seed photos plant sale journal topics links guestbook Butterflies and moths in our garden

other wildlife in our garden

What's a-fluttering?

Butterflies are the most popular visitors in most gardens, for sure. Until recently, I would just smile as a butterfly skipped by, and maybe follow it until it disappeared out of sight. But now that I'm armed with a camera, butterflies beware! I've gotten a lot of help from the friendly people at Gardenweb's butterfly garden forum identifying the various species featured here. Another good resource is the USGS Butterflies of North America website.

Most moths are rather non-descript and fly at night - so no photos of those. But there are a few that'll make you take notice quick! Until I started paying attention to my garden's wildlife, I had very little idea what distinguishes butterflies from moths. Friendly webbers pointed me to a nice little page with some basic information.

Butterflies and moths go through a full metamorphosis. Some pictures of caterpillars, their larval life stage, are included on my crawlers page.

Butterflies

The monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, is probably the most famous of the bunch. Until this year, I had never knowingly spotted on in our garden, but one sunny day in late July, there it was, gracefully dancing around the pond and the swamp milkweeds that surround it. I'd love to spot some of its caterpillars, but wouldn't know a boy from a girl, and didn't spot any eggs on the perches I inspected. Still, it's welcome anytime - just stay away from Benny, who views any butterfly as an opportunity to go grab a net (or a pond skimmer, whichever is closer at hand).

Viceroys are monarch lookalikes. Scientists still argue over the evolutionary purpose of the resemblance of the butterflies, which are not closely related species. We just like both of them, each on its own terms. It so happens that we spotted the viceroy one year before the monarch shown above, one day in mid-September. We were charmed by a visit by this graceful butterfly, which spent about fifteen minutes visiting our patio and pond area, and was not the least bit shy. I loved its gliding, almost floating motion. Viceroys use willows as caterpillar hosts. Although our arctic willow (pictured at left) was among the plants visited, I didn't notice any egg-laying going on - heck, I don't even know if this was a female...

This year, all of a sudden, we've seen quite a few of these beautiful, large Eastern tiger swallowtails (Papilio glaucus). This is the first one to sit still long enough for a picture. I'm glad it picked the verbena in the cutting garden to do so, because it makes for a pretty background. We hope to see many more of these. With a little luck, we'll get to see their really cool caterpillars, with fake eyes, as well. I'll be on the lookout.

The checkered skipper (the one pictured here is probably Pyrgus communis) is a smaller butterfly - not much more than an inch in wingspan. Most of the ones I encounter are very flighty, sunning themselves for a few seconds at a time at perches near ground level, and never stopping for a photo op. But this one, found on a cool October morning, was much more docile, allowing me to shoot close-up photos and even sitting on my finger for a few seconds.

Azures are smaller butterflies. Frustrating for amateur photographers like me: in flight, they display their sky-blue upper wings, but when they sit down they fold their wings, to show their bluish gray underwings. Even those possess a delicate beauty, complemented by the black-and-white antennae, which are hard to discern from casual observation. The one photographed here, feasting on a rattlesnake master flower, is most likely the summer azure (Celastrina neglecta).

According to some information I found, the red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) prefers bird poop and tree sap over flowers, but I guess it had to settle for our verbena.

Another nice encounter with a red admiral, this one enjoying the nectar from our sedum spectabile.

The buckeye (Junonia coenia) may look very scary to its would-be predators, but it's a beauty in the eyes of us humans. This one was sunning itself on our concrete front walk in late August.

Orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme, identified by the slight orange coloration on the forewings) getting its nectar on a Verbena hastata alongside our pond.

This clouded sulphur (Colias philodice) was nice enough to sit for a portrait

Another sulphur, species unknown, was enjoying our knautia arvensis one morning.

Banded hairstreak (Satyrium calanus), meditating on a shasta daisy. Not a common visitor to our garden.

Mr. silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) normally prefers his flowers in the blue and red spectra, but he just couldn't resist our mountain mint

A beautiful spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troilus) came to visit our garden one day, and just couldn't help but keep coming back to our perennial pea. I didn't mind having ample opportunity to observe and photograph its pretty colors and figure.

This black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) had most likely just emerged, and wasn't too comfortable flying yet. After I took lots of pictures, bug-boy Ben managed to have him climb onto his hand and carried Mr Handsome around for a bit. The first butterfly photos of the year (2006)!

...but I more recently spotted its offspring, this colorful caterpillar, chomping away on our rue, so I know we've had more adult visits. Too bad I missed mommy.

All of a sudden, in late July, Peck's skippers (Polites peckius) were all over the garden! Although diminutive, they are fast fliers! Cool tongue.

The cabbage white (Pieris rapae) is the butterfly we see most in our gardens. Their caterpillars are an agricultural pest, but the adults add a cheerful movement to our gardens throughout summer. This one is sitting on some stock (matthiola) foliage, drinking in the wonderful scent of the nearby flowers.

With most butterflies, I get only the undersides of the wings, or only the top sides (depending on how they like to sit down), but cabbage whites will do both, so here's another pic.

Making cabbage-white babies. The female is on the left.

This skipper is most likely a wild indigo duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae), although baptisia was not among the many plants it visited when I found it fluttering through the garden.

Moths

I didn't immediately recognize this as a moth - but it is one. Day-flying, and sleek of form, it's a yellow-collared scape moth (Cisseps fulvicollis).

My most impressive moth discovery was this snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis), also known as bumblebee moth, often listed among the hummingbird moths. This one was resting on my hardy hibiscus (I found it while hunting for Japanese beetles), and didn't mind me shooting a photo from up close.

And another clearwing, seen almost three years later to the day, this time in full flight during a hot afternoon.

This handsomely patterned moth was enjoying the warmth of our pool cover when I discovered it. Little did I know that it was the parent of an agricultural pest: it's an armyworm moth (Pseudaletia unipuncta)!

Hardly eye-popping, but with a refined upside-down charm, this is probably a woollybear moth

Burly guy in the grass - when flying, he showed his orange wings; when fully folded, only a dull brown color. Not very shy, he crawled all over me and settled into my shirt collar. An ID inquiry at BugGuide suggests that this is a large yellow underwing moth, Noctua pronuba.

Seen from a few feet away, this guy looked like a piece of leaf debris on a corn leaf. A little closer up, it was clearly a moth, with a triangular jet-fighter shape (that photo didn't turn out). This photo shows the side view, with odd appendages and dull globe eyes. It's probably a Palthis moth.

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Last modified: August 01, 2007
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