The Cool House: butterflies
Showing posts with label butterflies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label butterflies. Show all posts

Friday, September 25, 2009

A couple of visitors


The heat of the last few days has finally broken and although it's still sunny, it's much cooler. Outside the kitchen door I found this blue butterfly slowly opening and closing its wings in the warmth of the morning sun - very beautiful but so fragile; inside was a rare, and not exactly welcome, phenomenon - a furry toad sitting on the tiles. I guess he had either been brought in by a cat or dog who then released him or he'd hopped in when the door was open. Either way, his hind legs were covered in animal hair which leads me to conclude that although he may have been a rare hybrid species it's more likely that I am not the best housekeeper in the world...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Big Brown Butterfly


Caught on the big blue spruce and brought to me by The Grey Knight (formerly known as The Guy) who thought I'd appreciate it and maybe like to share it with the interwebs - does this man know me at all? I don't like dead Lepidoptera any more than I like them live, so I had him place it on the patio table where I could photograph it from a safe distance (I would have preferred he left it in the tree and called me to shoot it there but apparently that wasn't an option).
I have no idea what the species is, whether it's a moth or a butterfly but it's big, brown and bound to be one of these. It's about 6" from wingtip to wingtip, so if it had flown near me I would have screamed like a girl yet I'm sad that something that was so pretty is now lifeless. Anyone out there have a clue to its common or scientific name? (Click to embiggen).