Butterflies at Brookside Gardens
/August was a good month for butterflies at Brookside Gardens – both in the conservatory and outdoors in the gardens. Volunteering allows me to visit the Wings of Fancy exhibit and bring guests when I’m not ‘on shift;’ I get there just as the conservatory opens to indulge in some butterfly photography.
I challenge myself to capture eyes, proboscis, palpi, and antennae for as many butterflies as possible.
The blue morpho is one I photography a lot so I am always looking for a new and different perspective.
The blue morpho is one I photography a lot so I am always looking for a new and different perspective.
The same is true for true for the malachite. I think I like the underside of the wings more than the upper.
The Julia longwing is the one I photographyed a few months ago moving its palpi across the parts of its eyes.
The stars for August were the big moths. There were male and female Atlas moths – kept separately so they couldn’t mate and lay eggs everywhere in the conservatory creating a containment problem. The males are much smaller than the females and the shape of the scale-less (clear) portions of the wing are different. In the pictures the male’s antennae are forward from the head…both females have antennae positioned back over their heads.
The other big moth was the Africa Moon Moth which looks very similar to our North American Luna Moth.
The Wings of Fancy exhibit runs until September 16….so a few more weeks to enjoy the butterflies in the conservatory.
