April Mire

Today's post shares a poem by Robert Frost, called "Blue-Butterfly Day."  It is a favorite spring poem of mine, and I am pairing it with a couple of my photos.  Maybe like me, you have noticed that the butterflies are back, zigzagging over the grasses and stopping at all of the early blossoms.

Blue-Butterfly Day

by Robert Frost

It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,

And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry

There is more unmixed color on the wing

Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:

And now from having ridden out desire

They lie closed over in the wind and cling

Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.

I've always loved that final image - "Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire."  I've seen the muddy ruts left behind after a vehicle has passed by and how, as the noise of it fades away - the insects and birds return to the new puddles in the altered terrain.

Monarch Butterfly

I found this beautiful fellow while on a walk recently.  I thought it was a Monarch, but had to look him up to be sure.  He was indeed a Monarch, but I learned that he has a look-alike, which is the Viceroy butterfly.

Monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed

Monarch butterflies are bigger than Viceroys, but I didn't have the two different kinds sitting side by side in order to do a comparison.  To determine this fellow's identification, I had to look for other differences.

One difference is that the bottom row of orange spots on a Monarch are concave, meaning they stick out.  On a Viceroy they are convex, or indented.  That way my main clue.  Also, the Viceroy has a black line that runs through his bottom wings, and the Monarch does not.  Additionally, male Monarchs have two black scent glands on their bottom wings, as pictured below.  Viceroys don't have those spots.

Female Monarchs don't have the black scent glands, but they do have thicker black veining between their orange spots.  Due to this factor, I would guess that the butterfly in the first photo above is a female.

Monarch butterfly on pea partridge

The Monarch is one of the biggest butterflies around, and is well-known for its coloring, and amazing migration journeys.  A chemical in the milkweed they love to feeds on causes them to taste bitter when chomped on by predators.  Predators soon learn to leave Monarchs alone, and anything that even looks like them, such as the Viceroys.  Great defense mechanisms!

Clouded Sulphur

The clouded sulphur butterfly is a yellow, medium-sized butterfly with a wing span of about two inches.  Its other names are the common sulphur, and the clouded yellow.  Here's the one I photographed, with his wings folded.

Notice his little antennae, which look like little match sticks.

These butterflies are much more beautiful than this photo can show.  When opened, the wings are rimmed with a smokey black smudge, and have two light-orange spots gracing their yellow wings.

Sulphurs are pollinators, and do good work by flying from flower to flower, drinking the nectar.  In this way they pick up and drop off their cargo of pollen. Some of their favorite plants are clover, milkweed, alfalfa, coneflowers and sunflowers.

These butterflies fly close to the ground and are very fast.  This accounts for why I wasn't able to get any additional photos of this fellow!

Their scientific name is Colias philodice.   The etymology of colias still eludes me, but philodice comes from - you guessed it - Greek mythology.  Philodice was the daugther of the river god, Inachus, and a sister to Io.

Red-Spotted Purple

"Breathtaking!"

"Exquisite!"

This is what some people are saying about the Red-Spotted Purple.  It may be considered one of the most popular butterflies in the United States.

The top of the butterfly is a lovely iridescent blue, with white spots running down the outer rim of the wings, and with red spots showing through from underneath.

Here's a look at the underside of its wings.  It looks like a completely different butterfly from this view.

It mimics the poisonous Pipevine Swallowtail, which is a great defense mechanism, but is not a swallowtail at all, and is actually from the brush-footed family of butterflies.

Smooth Operators

This smooth operator is a common Buckeye butterfly.

The males like to hang out on drugstore corners plants that are low to the ground, looking for females passing by.  They patrol their turf  the surrounding area, and bully chase off other insects.  Their gang symbol eyespots, worn on the wings, may help scare off predators.

As of yet, entomologists have no proof that they slick back their hair with pomade, but they have confirmed the use of aftershave pheromones in attracting the ladies their mates.  This species is so common that it is obvious they have mastered dating courtship rituals.  They range all the way from Canada to South America, avoiding haircuts and full-time employment.