Monday, July 6, 2015

More Butterflies (and Bugs)

The garden continues to be a delightful place, with the Valerian still in bloom, and dozens of butterflies and moths swarming in the fragrant air.  Other flowers are rapidly coming into bloom, but right now the fragrance and the number of Ctenucha moths fluttering around are mesmerizing.

Yesterday I spotted a Little Wood-Satyr fluttering by, and it sat still for me to get quite a good picture.  

And hanging in the shade on a new Milkweed blossom was an Eastern Comma, a totally new one for me.  I didn't even notice the Ctenucha moth on the left until I was preparing the picture to post!

The curved tiny white mark on the underside of the hind wing is the key identifying mark for this species.

And then one day we had the emergence of the tiny skippers, hundreds of them, everywhere.  There are several species, and I've never sorted out how to identify them since they're so similar.

Clearly these two are different, but I'm not going to guess the species.  They're only half-an-inch long or a bit more.

And some of them have these four wings, two of which slant upward at an angle sometimes when they are perching.  These are really just the forewing and hind wing, but because they hold them at a different angle, they look quite unique.

I've shown you the Northern Crescent before, bright orange and black.

But it comes in quite a range of colour patterns too, this one with a lot of white.  Still, looking at the illustrations in my little book, it appears to be the same species.  These are a confusing group anyway, but it's the right time of the season for the Northern Crescents to be flying in Ontario.  It's not as ragged as it looks; that's the shadow of the leaf on the right

And I did get one shot of a dragonfly, though I don't know the species.

And I hear the big heavy Bumblebees hovering around some flowers.


And these are the unknowns, two really white little butterflies, the last one only about half-an-inch in size.  Just haven't been able to find illustrations that match these.

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21 comments:

  1. Some lovely little jewels here. It's always amazing how many tiny insects there are when you get down and really search among the vegetation.

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  2. Nice shots of all the little insects.

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  3. What wonderful shots !!! Nature is beautiful !!

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  4. Every last one a real beauty! Great job on the photos!

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  5. Fantastic shots. Wish I could shoot like that.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  6. All great shots. The dragon fly is really cool. Great Job!!

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  7. Great post with all the butterfly posts.

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  8. Excellent photos! You must have patience and a steady hand!

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  9. You really know your butterflies, and some excellent macro shots! Nice post.

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  10. Stunning shots!

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  11. I know next to nothing about butterflies and insects - though I do love watching the former (and moths). But you obviously do and your photographs are astonishing; beautiful.

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  12. Great shots of all of them. I like the small skippers.

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  13. The little skippers take me back to being a kid - they seemed to be everywhere!

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  14. your lovely critters are a joy to see!

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  15. beautiful ... You are so talented to be able to catch these speedy winged ones, and you have a great variety . Visiting cause we are next door neighbors at Our World and what a lucky break it was for me ! Really enjoyed this first visit to your blog!

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  16. Superb photos of some great moths.
    Have a Wonderful Day!
    Peace :)

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  17. Your unknown dragon is a Common Whitetail. I just returned from a little family trip and I'm getting caught up with your recent posts this morning.

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  18. Great captures! I love all the butterflies and the bugs.

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  19. Lots of little skippers on the go around here lately as well.

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