Out-of-town Flutterbys
June and I wandered over to one of my favorite places last weekend, the Tucson Botanical Garden's Butterfly Garden. It's a great place with a huge variety of bugs that changes week-to-week, so I go back a LOT. I've always been fascinated with these critters. The garden is also one of the few places in Tucson where you can find jungle humidity. We're so used to low humidity that we sort of suck it directly into our skin. We can usually handle about an hour before we have to go back to desert humidity.
Anyway, a small sampling of the guests this year visiting us from South and Central America (you can tell which is which by their accents):
Named for its clever disguise and odd habit of swooping down out of the sky to eat unsuspecting zebras, the Zebra Longwing.
Named for its long claws and ability to shred oranges with a single well-aimed swipe, the Orange Tiger.
And then we have this odd butterfly who appears to have fallen in love with an orchid and had her eyes dyed to match, the Julia Longwing.
Wow - I see the fascination!! Perfect focus on these all. I'm partial to orange tiger - I think it's the way it blends with the shades . . . . teeny nit pick - clone out the pipe(?) in the background???
Eyes on Julia are freaky - good observation on your part! Also love the vivid colors in that one.
- Queen Dutchess
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I like how you got the Zebra to pose, looks like it is planning on attacking some unsuspecting photographer.
On Tiger, I like the contrasting lines, the butterfly and blinds.
Julia is my favorite, loved the colors. Nitpick, the white in the left, lower corner.
- A quack with an camera
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Ok, PH is scr@wing w/me this morning.
- Hi Ya!
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Love the different angles. Each and every one is a keeper for me. I don't have anything to nitpick about :)
- Hi Ya!
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Great shots Dub! But you did leave out the part that the Zebra Longwings have to hunt in swarms or 'rabbles', otherwise they would never be able to get the zebra off the ground ; )
- Inspired by nature
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Julia is a killer shot!
Finally - an answer to why the Zebra population is threatened in Arizona.
Hey Dub - talk about humidity - come the Mich. in middle summer with occasional 90 deg. temps w/80% humidity. You'd die.
- Michigan Redneck
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I agree that Julia is the best Eye shot. ;)
There is a butterfly conservatory over in Canada just over the border that I still have no chance to get to. May be a good trip to take this winter with the kids. ;)
- Beauty is all around us
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I like them all Dub. I am partial to the tiger on the blinds. Very nice set.
- It must be a full moon.
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I liked them all but I really love Julie. should have lived in NYC when we did, in the summer up into the 90's with humidty also in the 90's. I guess that 's why we like our desert. In the summer in NYC the weather was called the 3 H's, hot, hazy, and humid. By the way we did not have AC there. Wiring in the old apt. building where we lived was too old to handle AC
- desert flower
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fish & mac - I have done humidity and will do it again, but I'm not used to it and it's going to take some adjustment. I went to school in Charleston, used to live in Florida and will again when we retire, and I went to high school in Panama. There was not only no air conditioning down there, there was not even any glass in the windows - only screens with metal louvers to keep the rain out.
Angie - I forgot to mention that they hunt in well-organized and highly coordinated "rabbles" - thank you for reminding me.
MrQ - good eye - shortly after this shot a rabble of Zebra Longwings led by this intense fellow swarmed down and hauled off the lady in the zebra-skin coat beside me
Judy - yep, it's a pipe. Good eye, I shall attempt to make it less obtrusive, although the folks in the garden may complain.
- Dub
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Dub, Florida!!!! Why there? That's where all the New Yorkers go. I know because that's where all our friends went.We were different so we came out here and so glad we did. We feel florida is just an extension of NYC.
- desert flower
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fish, you're talking about south Florida, and you're right. It's an extension of NYC, especially Miami Beach. Where I'm from, though, is a long way from there up in the Panhandle on the Gulf Coast. In fact, it's a shorter drive from there to Illinois, than it is to Miami.
- Dub
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