Flashback Friday: Swallowtail Videos

August, 2018

Black Swallowtail - Hodges#4159 (Papilio polyxenes)

For the past few years, JF and I have been raising butterflies (and occasionally moths and ladybugs) that she finds in her garden. Five years ago, we had a lot of Black Swallowtail caterpillars that JF collected and I raised. These are my first ever iPhone videos. I was thrilled with the results at that time. We have a lot of great memories that were funny, embarrassing, and sad with these caterpillars. There was much caterpillar misbehavior! There were runaways, cats trying to steal them away, and reluctant eclosers (not a real word).  I love watching "the cats" actually chewing up the parsley. The butterflies are excellent pollinators. This species loves parsley, dill, and plants from the carrot family. 

I hope you all have joyous memories today. 

Here is a female black swallowtail butterfly:

And here is a male that JF held while photographing it:

You can easily see the sexual dimorphism shown here.

Have a peaceful weekend!

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Nature Friday: Sexual Dimorphism

Female

Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia)

Male

Sexual dimorphism means that the two sexes of a species are different from each other. This dragonfly differs with wing pattern and body color. The male is flashier than the female. I've waited all summer to get both sexes photographed, and it finally happened on Thursday afternoon. The female landed in front of me five times!  

😍

More Nature!

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