This butterfly looks like a Monarch, but it's really a Viceroy. A Monarch butterfly is toxic to it's predators, but this butterfly's only defence is it's "stolen identity". It relies on the Monarch's good looks (or bad, depending on your vantage point) to keep it from being eaten!
Alice turns over every leaf looking for something interesting. Under this leaf she found an exoskeleton of a Cicada.
On a nearby tree we found a Cicada nymph ready to shed his outer layer and find his wings!
Blue damselfly, hanging on for dear life against the wind.
I believe this is called a Question Mark butterfly, but I'm not entirely sure. Can anyone confirm?
A red dragonfly spotted on one of our hikes.
On first glance, you might think the photos below are of bird droppings. But don't be fooled! It's really a Swallowtail larva. The larva will have 4 molts and it's body will transform once again. In the next stage, it turns green and is almost camouflaged by the leaf. Once it has gone through it's pupal stage, it emerges looking like this:
(Sadly, they were too elusive all week and I could not get a shot of my own.)
“The way a child discovers the world constantly replicates the way science began. You start to notice what's around you, and you get very curious about how things work. How things interrelate. It's as simple as seeing a bug that intrigues you. You want to know where it goes at night; who its friends are; what it eats.” - David Cronenberg
1 comment:
excellent quote by DC.
also, I haven't seen a Cicada since I was in my teens; I'm glad you spotted one. They used to appear regularly on the bark of a spruce tree - against which I usually parked my bike - in front of the family home in Norwich.
I hear them on occasion, but am still loking!
GH
Post a Comment