Large Marble. Talk about names that don’t fit!

Today I noticed some small white flowers starting to bloom on the hillside just above our driveway and so this evening I went up there to get a photo or two. Completely un-noticed until I knelt down to get a close shot of one of the flowers was this beautiful little creature. Although not rare, it is new to me and I’m very pleased that I got the chance to see it!

Large Marble, Euchloe ausonides, in the Pieridae family

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Euchloe-ausonides

Late night visitor

Last night as I sat at the computer I noticed a slight motion just to my left. A tiny moth (measuring about a quarter of an inch from wingtip to wingtip) had landed on the desk beside me. It had a rather pleasing silverish look to its wings, which also seemed to have an unusual configuration. It stayed around long enough for a photo. I had never noticed anything with that kind of wing before. Today, it took me over an hour to identify it: (my skills at identifying insects are sadly under par). After looking at 235 pages of insect photos, on the very last page, the very last photo, was a picture of Alucita montana, a Six-plume moth.

Swallowtail

After a period of disappointment because there didn’t seem to be any Swallowtails visiting this year, today there were several visiting our flower garden and this one patiently posed for a few photos. They hadn’t disappeared, they were just later than usual. Usually my photos result from a trip I have made: it was nice today to have a subject come to me (and thanks to my wife for spotting it and letting me know we had a pretty little visitor).

Western Tiger Swallowtail ~ Papilio rutulus

Pine White

Along toward the end of summer these butterflies appear. I always look forward to them!

Pine White ~ Neophasia menapia

High ridge butterfly

Last fall while hunting not far from here my son and I caught just a glimpse of a very large mule deer buck. Now that he is growing his new set of antlers we thought that perhaps we might be able to find the ones he shed in about January and so we hiked up to the high ridge where he makes his home. No luck finding the antlers, but just being on that steep and beautiful ridge that is covered with tall grass and flowers was worth all of the effort it took to get up there; and this butterfly was making it his home too:

Johnson’s Hairstreak ~ Callophrys johnsoni

Butterfly of fall

Variegated Fritillary, Euptoieta claudia