More Butterflies

I shared a few butterfly species last week; here are a few more.  There's about a month while first the Ninebark is in bloom, and then the Valerian comes into bloom, fragrant as well as good food for bees, butterflies and moths.  The more common butterflies are simply fluttering around it all the time.

The striking White Admiral.  We've had more than one of these around the garden for two or three weeks.

This is the Valerian that seems to attract the butterflies so much.  A tall plant, and a volunteer in the garden, entirely arising from last year's seed, it's so fragrant it has been used for perfume in the past.

I think this is an Eight-spotted Forester moth on a Ninebark blossom.  I only got one shot of it; thank goodness it was in focus!

And this is the Virginia Ctenucha moth, which arrives in a swarm and flutters all over the garden, easily more than a dozen of them all the time.

And this is a great picture (for me) of a Viceroy.  It mimics the slightly larger Monarch, but has an extra black line across the hind wing.

We had a pair of them feeding on the Ninebark one day, though I never did get a good picture of the two of them together.

And not just in the garden, but all over the property, even on the gravel driveway, we have dozens of these tiny skippers that appear to have four wings.  It matches pictures I've seen of the European Skipper.

In last week's post on butterflies, I showed our Ninebark shrub and its flowers.  This is the Valerian that has invaded our garden and sprung up between all the other flowers, so beloved by the butterflies.  It makes the garden look like a jungle for a month, but we let it grow for those butterflies.

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