Butterfly Nerds

I just got a photo/text message from a friend out in CA- it was a picture of a Queen butterfly she saw the other day. Some back-and-forth texting ensued (or if you're REALLY into butterflies you would've considered it sexting?) that made me realize spending a summer at Hershey Gardens' Butterfly House (last year) turned me into kind of a butterfly nerd.

I'll now do my best to start the process of turning you into a butterfly nerd, too.

I bet you know what that is.
It's a Monarch!
If you already knew that you're pretty awesome!
This one is a male. You can tell by the two black spots in the center of the lower wings. The females have thicker black veins in their wings and don't have those two black dots.

Photo by D. Gordon E. Robertson

I bet you know what THIS butterfly is, too- even though you may not know you know! It's the Monarch Impostor: The Viceroy! Almost everyone's heard of "that butterfly that tries to look like a Monarch when it knows it isn't." They are right! That's what it does!

How do you tell the difference? Take a look at this butterfly and the Monarch above. Even though their wings are in slightly different positions, you can see the defining mark. A hint: Look at the lower wings.

If you didn't find it yourself, it's ok, you're still awesome!
The bottom wings of the Viceroy have a black line that goes through the middle of the lower wings across the veins. That black line is how you tell the difference! You can see it on both sides of the wing.

Sometimes a butterfly's wings look completely different on the top side (the side that faces the sky when they fly) versus the bottom! A perfect example is below.

Do you know what this guy is?
It looks quite similar to the Monarch, but this butterfly is actually called a Queen. It has no dark black veins running through the upper wings like the Monarch has. It's also more brownish in color. When a Queen opens its wings, the top sides of the wings are just the rusty color with black along the outer edges- the veins are not prominent at all, as seen in this photo by Korall:

 Photo by Korall

For more neat things about Monarchs, have a look at this site:
http://www.livemonarch.com/monarch-facts.htm

This is the Monarch Caterpeeeeeeeeellar! It's yellow and white and black and stripey. Plus you'll know it's a Monarch Baby if you found it on Milkweed! A lot of people confuse it with the Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpeeeellar. I've done paintings of both now, so I consider myself the expert on all things caterpeellar. Ok not really, but doing the paintings in addition to time at the butterfly house was quite informative!

*
 I admit... I find it ridiculously fun to say "caterpeeeellar."

*AA

Butterfly house has closed for fall & winter....

But here are some photos I took during the last time that I worked there! Hope you enjoy them.

A Julia drinking from a purple butterfly bush.

Zebra Longwing enjoying a yellow butterfly bush...

Two different longwings sharing a feast!

I plan to make at least a couple into drawings, and hope to use the rest as references for my butterflies in the rainforest painting that is on my agenda... another painting that I dreamed about a few months ago and I must see come to fruition.

Another good news surprise!

First of all: No, my car didn't break down in the ghetto.

Last night was the Hydrant Hysteria awards reception. I found out, much to my surprise, that I won first place in the Professional Artists category! I was so shocked, and honored... There are some GREAT hydrants out there in Downtown Harrisburg!

You can see a bunch of them in JasonTromm's photo set on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trommetter/sets/72157621481748747/

And more great photos on Flickr from Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hersheyharrisburg

I look at all these hydrants and still can't believe that mine was picked. This past Saturday night, I had a dream that one of the women who works for the Downtown Improvement District told me that mine had won. By the time I got to the awards reception last night, I had completely talked myself out of it, just because there really were so many great ones and I thought, "I just painted a bunch of bugs and flowers and things that I like..." I had no idea others would be fans of the bugs, too! :)

Thank you so much everyone who voted.

More Greetings from Hershey's Butterfly House!

Yesterday was not the most fun of afternoons I've had at the butterfly house. 3 casualties on my watch. THREE. I was beyond upset and trying not to let it show, after all they were accidents. Dumb accidents but nevertheless. Since the butterfly house is located in the Children's Garden, it has obvious appeal to most kids. I say most because plenty of children are NOT fond of butterflies at all. But most are. You would think that it might be grabby toddlers who you have to watch out for... but no. It's the photographers.... The adults.

I'm usually standing near the entrance on the inside of the butterfly house so if any butterflies are lying along the bricks (which, to my dismay, seems to be their favorite damn place to be), I can point them out with a word of caution to everyone who enters: "Be careful where you step because the butterflies do like to lay around on the walkway. They blend in easily if you're not looking for them. They're also fast, so while I'm trying to watch for them and let you know if you're near one, sometimes they land too quickly for me to warn people." I also attempt to get the butterflies move off the walkway, but they can be stubborn little things and will fly right back to where they were basking and refuse to land elsewhere...

So I'll point them out to people, sometimes more than once, and even so... you get someone taking photos, or just off in la-la land. They make a beeline for a butterfly who is minding its own business warming itself on the sunny walkway. I'll point out the butterfly to the person and say "Oh.. hey...Watch out..." and not once, not twice, but THREE times yesterday the person was completely oblivious... and, splat. Hellllooooo?? You're the only person within 10 feet of me! Who, exactly, did you think I was talking to when I started walking toward YOU and said "Oh, hey, watch out!"


At the end of the afternoon yesterday, I had a visitor that seemed like he really wanted to come home with me! I let him hang on for about 30 minutes but I finally had to try and get to my car before the heavy rains came... unfortunately I was about 2 minutes too late and had to wait it out for about 40 minutes. Ugh! But I did get a few great pics earlier in the afternoon...

Here we have a White Peacock on a Black Eyed Susan. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to get some good photos of the butterflies' faces. A lot of butterfly pictures are taken from above, with their beautiful wings exposed, or from the side while their wings are folded up behind them. Those are great photos for obvious reasons, but like a lot of bugs, butterflies have quite cute (and silly) faces. You don't get to see them that often, but I think I got a good one of this guy here :)


These two are a Buckeye butterfly. It's too bad the photos don't really do them justice... in the sun, their wings have so many bright colors. There are pinks, purples, blues- but usually in photos, the oranges and browns seem to be all that show up. Those are pretty on their own, but the iridescence is really quite impressive when you can get a good look at it.