Brookside Wings and Wine

Earlier this week we attended an evening event at Brookside Gardens that included wine tasting and appetizers in the non-butterfly end of the conservatory building….then watching the butterflies respond to the sun sinking to the horizon.

When we first entered, the conservatory seemed calmer. The zebra longwings – and other butterflies – were beginning to find a roosting place in the fichus tree.

Others were on the walls or ceiling of the conservatory. I’m sure there were many that found a place in the foliage where I didn’t notice them.

There were two flowers on the passionflower vine that is the food plant for a couple of the longwing butterflies; there were no butterflies around it.

Just before sunset, the owl butterflies became more active – many dances through the air. I was waiting for the male cecropia moth that has emerged from its cocoon last Sunday to fly from where it had been hiding in the fichus tree all day. But it stayed where it was. These larger moths do not eat as adults so maybe there was no pheromone in the air of a female cecropia moth…and he didn’t feel the need to move!  I contented myself with a zoomed image of it through the foliage.

Rainy Day Butterflies

There are always butterflies on the glass ledges of the conservatory in Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy. I took pictures of a blue morpho and owl butterfly looking out – imaging them like young children wishing the day was one they could go outside to play. They don’t stay at the window forever – eventually they flutter off to the banana tray or the plants in the conservator that are more natural places for them to roost.

When it rains, the conservatory has many leaky joints and sometimes the area near the windows is as wet as the outdoors. There was a butterfly that evidently succumbed while it was looking out the window and became a collection of the drips at the window. It’s always sad to find a dead butterfly. Their lives are often 30 days or less. This one managed to keep its wings intact – no missing pieces.

A Macro View of Blue Morpho and Owl Butterflies

Every time I go into Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy with my camera, I see something new. Did you know that the blue morpho has quite a lot of salmon color? Look at the images below and notice the color of:

• the palpi (the structures that come up on either side of the rolled up proboscis and between the eyes),
• the body markings,
•  the centers of the ‘eye’ markings on the underside of the wings, and
• the outer edge of the underside of the hind wing.

Below is a picture of two blue morphos that show both sides of the wings. There are reddish markings at the bottom of the open wing but most are in the part torn away in this battered specimen.

Switching to the owl butterfly - notice how different the eyes and palpi are from the blue morpho. They are brown and black and almost seem to match each other! The body looks furrier too!

The center of the ‘eye’ spot might have a dusting of blue – viewed in the right light.