Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterfly

5 06 2012

Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly at Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh

When you’re searching for large, photogenic butterflies your eyes are trained for movement and keen to see activity on nectaring wildflower. After much time spent doing this you find that you are also wired to notice smaller, yet unexpected photographic opportunities.

This is such a find. Our female Eastern Tailed-Blue butterfly has minutes before left her nighttime hiding place in the Outdoor Gardens of the Phipps Conservatory and now warms herself with the morning sun’s gentle rays. There is little activity around her at this morning hour (9:20).

This is the view you will enjoy of Everes comyntas. Note her white wing fringes, the sweet orange hindwing dots surrounding black dots. Her gray is rich and her ‘tails’ mostly gone, as the result of?

Very often people stroll over from nearby (very nearby) University of Pittsburgh and from Carnegie Mellon University to sit on the welcoming benches of the Outdoor Gardens and to stroll through the Gardens to collect their thoughts, prepare for their lecture. ponder their research path…our Eastern Tailed-Blue helps relax them and reminds them to remain grounded and enjoy the rewards of being an esthete.

Jeffrey


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Categories : Butterflies in Pennsylvania, Butterfly Types, Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterfly, For Interested Students, Phipps Conservatory & Gardens

Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterfly

23 02 2012

Eastern tailed blue butterfly photographed at Phipps Conservatory Outdoor Gardens, Pittsburgh, PA 

August 29th and our Eastern Tailed-Blue (ETB) butterfly has been popping from tall verbena flowerhead to the next, silently enjoying the bounty and security of the Outdoor Gardens at Pittsburgh’s Phipps Conservatory.

With a lull and brief absence of other butterflies, I shoot away, remembering that I am always charmed by these diminutive pookies. It helps that they are usually intact and fresh, providing good images.

We, I have concluded, are less happy seeing images of butterflies with damaged wings. So ETB’s are usually great subjects, intact and smartly attired.

We’ve posted other images of Everes comyntas and invite you to have a look at them.

As to why ETB wings are nipped less frequently than other butterflies…I invite you to share what you know of this?

Flying from April to October here in Pennsylvania, they are easily overlooked, flying away from your approach just inches above the trail you’re traveling. But they’re worth stopping, approaching and studying.

Very, very soon the mature caterpillars will move from the hiding places they’ve been in these winter months and pupate. Quietly and unnoticed. Hmm.

Jeffrey


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Categories : Butterflies in Pennsylvania, Butterfly Types, Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterfly, For Interested Students, Phipps Conservatory & Gardens, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterfly

10 02 2012

Eastern tailed blue photographed at Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

He’s our 2nd post of an Eastern-Tailed  Blue butterfly. Our first post offers a ventral (underside) wing of the wings.

Here the dorsal (upper) wing surface blares the fantastic blue of a fresh, healthy male ETB. Experts use the ‘ETB’ shortcut to identify individuals of this butterfly species.

About in June on a moist trail at Raccoon Creek State Park, he is taking up water and all of those minerals that we learned about on that beloved Periodic Table of Elements. Why are males more likely to be seeking minerals? Because males spend much of their day flying around searching for females. This extended flight time results in a good deal of protein wear and tear and…they’ll need fresh mineral caches to synthesize brand-new protein molecules (these elements are part of the make-up of different protein molecules).

Everes comyntas prefer trails and cut and disturbed areas and you’ll see them from April to late September. When disturbed they fly as short distance, close to the ground and set down perhaps 20 feet down trail.

The ladies don’t have blue above. Instead their dorsal wing color is gray.

How large are ETB’s? Tiny, about the width of your thumbnail. But…they’re pookies, perky, waif-like and pretty, especially their black and orange/red markings (see our other posting).

Where are they during February? They winter over as (eggs, papa, larva, adults). Which is it?

Jeffrey


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Categories : Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterfly, For Interested Students, Raccoon Creek State Park

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