White Admiral

A White Admiral butterfly in my garden this early evening.

Cabbage White Butterfly

To the left is a Cabbage White male and to the right is the Cabbage White female Butterfly.

A Beautiful Monarch in My Garden

Painted Lady Butterfly [Vanessa cardul]

This Painted Lady butterfly was found in my flower garden this morning; photographed while resting on a Pink Cone Flower.

Moth At Rest: Black-rimmed Prominent

I found this Black-rimmed Prominent moth at rest upon my back porch window. The photo to the left shows the underside of the moth clinging to the window. Going inside I was able to get a profile view of it in a closed wing position shown on the right.

Milbert's Tortoiseshell Butterfly

The underside wings of this Milbert's Tortiseshell Butterfly were of a very rich dark brown colour having a lighter brown sub-marginal band. When it began to open its wings slightly I got a glimpse of the rich orange and yellow hues of its outer wings. This butterfly was feeding on Yellow Cone Flowers in my flower garden today.

Leconte's and Confused Hapola Moths

I almost quit trying to get a photo of this Leconte's Hapola Moth(left) for I had to keep following it around my lawn and flower beds for what seemed to me an enormous amount of time before I finally got its picture. I was quite sure I hadn't seen this particular moth before but it did look vaguely familiar. Checking through my photo archives I found a photo of a Confused Haploa (right) which I had taken last year, in July '06. The two moths look very similar but, although the brown colouring is the same, the patterning is different. The Leconte's Haploa has a dark brown line extending down the margin of the forward wing with a couple of short spurs extending inward from it.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar

Although I have seen hundreds and hundreds of Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies , for they seem to be everywhere in the early summer, I had never seen an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar until this week. We had been walking along the edge of a river admiring the beautiful Water Lilies and the reflection of blue Pickerel Weed growing there. Upon returning to our car my sister-in-law remarked, "Oh, I see we have a visitor!" Perched upon the receiving end of my seat belt was a fascinating, intriguing looking, smooth, green caterpillar with black, blue and yellow eyespots and a black eyebrow! I don't know how it got there but I suspect it may have been caught upon my clothing or camera and I carried it back to the car with us . We considered ourselves very lucky to have seen it for from what I have read, they are often located nearer the tops of trees, rather than in lower locations. As we studied it we could see that it retracted its head within its body but when it walked its head would protude out of a front opening. Before we left we carefully placed the caterpillar on the leaves of a nearby tree.

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

I found ten or more of these Monarch Caterpillars earlier this week feeding on Milkweed plants. I have gone to this location several times in the past few weeks and have not seen any Monarchs around this Milkweed Patch this season; although I had found two or three Monarchs there last summer.

Monarch Butterfly

This is my second sighting of a Monarch Butterfly this summer.
This is a female Monarch.