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Monday, June 6, 2011

Day 4.147: Why did I take this?

That's what I was wondering when went through my pictures from the rail trail and saw this:


I have worked it out since. Can you?

5 comments:

  1. A very well camouflaged butterfly. Do you know the species?

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  2. I believe it's a Painted Lady, but I did not get a much better view than this except for a flash of orange as it landed. Both Exile #4 and E5N1 tended Painted Lady caterpillars and released the butterflies at school recently so maybe this is one of theirs.

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  3. Is your Painted Lady the same as ours which is Vanessa cardui?

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  4. That is what I believe this to be - although, according to Wikipedia, it may be known as a Cosmopolitan here. Amazingly they don't overwinter here but recolonise from the southern states or from Mexico.

    The ones the kids were tending may have been Vanessa virginiensis - the American (Painted) Lady but I don't know for sure.

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  5. Painted Ladies are also migrants here, coming from continental Europe, some years in great numbers. I haven't heard of any yet this year.

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