design features | Winged Beauty Butterflies

Black and Yellow Argiope 3 photographed by Jeff Zablow at Powdermill Wildlife Refuge, Rector, Pennsylvania

This, I believe is that Black and Yellow Argiope spider, seconds after we saw her in Warning: Not For The Faint Of Heart. She has immobilized the grasshopper and for added assurance, wrapped it in sticky web.

Me? I examine her closely, and what do I think? Amazing, the design features that this beautiful creature displays, . . . all that from the Cr-ator.

Me? I remember this experience as if it were yesterday. She put on a show for me, and allowed so many exposures, so that I share them with you.

If you can get beyond the fear that some have of her, she is an engineering study, for sure.

Jeff

Edward Hairstreak Butterfly (Full ventral) photographed by Jeff Zablow at Lynx Prairie Reserve, Ohio

How many design features do you count on the right 2 wings of this Edwards’ Hairstreak butterfly? We’re in that magical meadow at the Lynx Prairie Reserve refuge in Adams County, Ohio. I’m sure that this butterfly is totally fresh, probably eclosing (having left its chrysalis) that very morning, or just the day before).

I would Love to find Edwards’ in my new Macon garden. We’ve set in Butterflyweed, for at Lynx they were aggressively nectaring on that milkweed, and we set in 2 Bear Oaks trees, this small Oak a favorite of Edwards’ Hairstreaks. Range maps show their range to extend nearly as far south as Macon, and it’d be a Hoot! to wake up one morning and . . . find Edwards’ nectaring and setting eggs on our Bear Oaks.

There are so few of us who seek butterflies, so finding rarer ones, like these, does leave me with a feeling of unique accomplishment. I’ve always regretted not having interacted with the Native Americans who lived here before us, and I’ve no doubt that they too marveled over the design features and absolute beauty of such a Hairstreak butterfly.

Am I being to gushy here, or is my thinking shared?

Jeff