Here’s to one of the most undervalued of American butterflies. Once upon a time, on smaller, rather poorly defined U.S. TV screens, there was an entertainer who wasn’t handsome, wasn’t well dressed, wasn’t Ivy-League polished, and wasn’t from Atlanta, Los Angeles or New Orleans. He had a rather noticeable nose, and he had an even more noticeable Brooklyn vocabulary. Jimmy Durante was his name, and his fame would baffle just about 99.99% of folks today.

This American Snout butterfly was found taking a break from its routine, in the Butterflies and Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in downtown Eatonton, Georgia. Rarely, maybe never, does a Snout generate the excitement registered when we see a Monarch, or a Giant Swallowtail or a Zebra Heliconian butterfly. That even with the acknowledgement that they are never very numerous and their appearance is never much predictable.

They do  cause something of a rush when they flash that blaze of Florida orange color, and for me, they evoke the memory of that Super Famous entertainer of time begone, Jimmy Durante, who couldn’t much sing, couldn’t much dance . . . but somehow was beloved by his audience, by sheer stroke of stage presence and genius. American Snouts too bedazzle, though they can’t be said to be the “Most” of just about anything.

Jeff