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| Zebra Longwing on Mexican Sunflower with Coleus Background The Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius) is the state butterfly of Florida. Aptly named, it is quickly identified by the yellow-white stripes and extremely elongated wings. It rarely spends long periods of time in open, sunny locations but is an abundant visitor to shadier gardens and yards. Adults have slow, graceful flight, and adeptly maneuver through dense vegetation. A member of a primarily tropical genus, it cannot endure prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures. Adults are extremely long-lived and may survive for several months. |
Flight With A Purpose
For at least a decade we've known that butterflies do not flutter aimlessly around the garden but instead follow precise flightpaths. Cant, Smith, Reynolds and Osbourne (Tracking butterfly flight paths across the landscape with harmonic radar. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 22 April 2005) were likely the first to use tiny tracking devices (harmonic radar) on butterflies.
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| Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) on Zinnia |
Prior to Cant et al. butterfly mobility had been predominantly studied using visual observations and mark-recapture experiments. Cant et al., by attaching light-weight radar transponders to butterfly's thorax proved that there is some method to butterfly flight madness.
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| Long-tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus) on Mexican Sunflower The Long-tailed Skipper is one of the most common and distinctive skippers in Florida and resembles a small swallowtail. Adults have a quick, low flight. They are fond of flowers and often abundant in home gardens. The larvae construct individual shelters on the host by folding over small sections of a leaf with silk. Older larvae may use the entire leaf or connect several leaves together. The butterfly is migratory, and moves southward each fall to overwinter in warmer portions of the state. |
Cant et al.'s work provided science with information on the insects' flightpaths, speeds and foraging behavior—some of which could guide butterfly conservation measures. This knowledge makes photographing butterflies no less difficult.
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| Polydamus Swallowtail (Battus polydamus) on Dotted Horsemint |
The images seen here are the best of hundreds taken over the course of a recent afternoon. Hundreds of shots revealed a few good, clear, images. The butterflies will not cooperate and sit still on a blossom long enough to get that perfect shot the first time.
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| Zebra Longwing on Spanish Needles (Bidens alba) |
Straight Flight
Subsequent research indicates that butterflies exhibit at least two distinct types of flight pattern: fast, straight movement and slower, non-linear movement.
During straight flight, butterflies zip along at about 9½ feet/second (2.9m/s). During slower type of flight, the insects forage for nectar from flowers and fly in loops, with a speed averaging 5¼ feet/second (1.6m/s).
A garden full of butterflies wouldn't be complete without butterfly caterpillars. In these these kind of otherworldly images Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars (Battus philenor) feast on the leaves of Dutchman's Pipe Vine (Aristolochia elegans).
Below, in sunlight and shadows I think they look particularly alien.
Gone Loopy
It’s not just poetic alliteration that makes the pat phrase “a butterfly fluttered by” so appropriate. The insects, although not always that speedy, often take a flight path that involves so many erratic dips and turns that they almost look out of control. But it’s not because they can’t do any better: Such unpredictable flight is how butterflies evade birds and other predators. However, most butterflies are brightly colored, which would seem to counter their evasiveness by making them easier to spot and track.
Why do butterflies flaunt their visibility?
A butterfly’s ability to evade and its blatant pigmentation go hand in hand.
Flying in loops seems also to perform an orientation function, helping the insects identify flowers or hibernation spots.
Eisner and Jantzen (Hindwings are unnecessary for flight but essential for execution of normal evasive flight in Lepidopetera, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science vol. 105, no. 43, July 2008), explored this oxymoronic butterfly biology and found that the bright colors and patters along with erratic flight were survival mechanisms evolved to confuse predators.
Butterflies are able to identify and avoid unsuitable habitats such as dense trees from up to 218 yards (200m). They seem able to identify suitable foraging habitats from about 109 yards (100m).
Knowing how butterflies choose where to go and how they use and feed in the landscape is very useful to conservationists. . .to the photographer. . . not so much. Its is, however, fascinating that someone else has answered some of these questions.
More Reading on this subject can be found at:
We've Watched and Read
A gray wolf pack has established itself in Northern California, the first family of wolves known in the state in nearly 100 years. The group which includes two adult black-furred gray wolves and five 4-month-old pups will be known as the "Shasta Pack." Meanwhile a lone gray wolf was sighted in Siskiyou County. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife have received several reports of large, dark-furred wolf-like animals in Siskiyou this summer (below).
When perfectly good emails and texts go oh so bad. Auto-fill, an inherently problematic function, can lead to not just semantic misunderstandings but to entire passels of information being dispatched to the wrong people, secrets are disclosed, petty true feelings are revealed, words (and, worse, photos) of longing and lust end up in the email box of your boss instead of your lover. No one is immune.
Nautiluses, called living fossils because they have survived 500 million years, are now threatened by over-harvesting and seafloor mining, making this find all the more significant.
Vulture populations in Africa are collapsing, part of a broader decline that throw off ecosystems and illustrates how far-reaching the effects of poaching, poisoning, and other human interventions can be.
Strange blue lights glowing on the edge of space first appeared over polar regions in 1885. Today, sightings are becoming increasingly common and now the phenomenon is moving into lower latitudes including Northern California.
Season 1, Episode 2: “So Close, Yet So Far”
Society continued its inexorable collapse on Sunday night, as “Fear the Walking Dead,” fresh off a record-breaking debut (ratings for episode 1 included over 10 million viewers making it the most viewed series premiere in cable TV history), returned to zombify a few more folks, find new flaws with over-aggressive policing and stage the saddest birthday party in history.
Milestones included the show’s first hand-to-hand zombie slaying (Principal Artie vs. fire extinguisher). We also got a better look at Travis’s old family and concluded that attitude-wise, he totally traded up, even when you factor in the addict stepson seizing on the floor. We do think those kids need a little of the Nancy Botwin treatment. How many times do you have to tell them to get away from the rotting, festering, infected boyfriend?