Our Viceroy butterflies here in Pennsylvania (8 hours west of New York City) are beautiful, elusive butterflies. We don’t see too many of them, they are now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t, and they are only found when 2 conditions are found together, wetlands and willow trees/bushes. No, my slide storage cabinet is not jam-packed with slides of Limenitis archippus. I have not seen as many of them as you would think. They are solitary butterflies and that means that you might see one here, see another later, a distance away there, and that second? Worn and wings bird-struck.

My trips to the U.S. southeast took me to the Land of possibilities. I might possibly find butterflies new to me. That I did: Georgia Satyrs, Giant Swallowtails, Little Metalmarks, Eastern Pygmy Blues, Zebra Heliconians (bold because that was a Kick!!), Juniper Hairstreaks, Cassius Blues, Palamedes Swallowtails, and more.

There was a type I wanted to see, but hadn’t yet seen. That takes us back to Viceroys. I so wanted to see the Viceroys shared in field guides of the eastern United States. Images in those guides showed southern Viceroys with spectacular hues, colors deeper and more Yummy! than the viceroys of Pennsylvania, northeastern viceroys.

Leave it to the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton to make that introduction. In this latest creation of Virginia Linch and company, August 2016, there I was staring at a Shmeksy! (read gorgeous) Viceroy butterfly . . . of the South. Near impossible to determine the gender, but this one cooperated, while it was resting for a bit, and I was pleased with its rich, sweet color. Very pleased. The slide louped well (on my light box). Back from the scanners (Rewind Memories), I gazed at this image, and it confirmed . . .  that Georgia is a butterfly destination. No doubt about it.

Jeff