butterflies
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Mourning Cloak
One of the earliest butterflies of spring, the mourning cloak, Nymphalis antiopa. Appropriately enough for its mournful name, this one was photographed today in Green-Wood Cemetery.
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Monarchy
An unusually dark Monarch caterpillar found at that little wonderland of wildness, Brooklyn Bridge Park. The place was full of standard-colored Monarchs about two weeks earlier. This one was the only one seen on a more recent visit. It’s late, but probably not too late. Nearby, I found the remains of a pupa. Also found…
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Night and Day
… you are the one.” All these insects were found in various parts of Massachusetts at the beginning of this month. I am unsure of IDs for the last two. The butterfly may be a pearl crescent. The Dobsonfly at the very top was a good two inches long, one of the weird delights brought…
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Chrysalis
The remains of a pupa, or chrysalis. This was, I think, the temporary home of a specimen of a Monarch, Danaus plexippus, as it underwent metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. The caterpillars themselves were much in evidence here in Brooklyn Bridge Park at the end of August, gobbling up milkweed. Curiously, the milkweeds contains noxious…
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Buckeye
A Common buckeye, Junonia coenia, working the aster in Prospect Park.
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Monarchs
A passel of monarch butterfly caterpillars, Danaus plexippus, were denuding some milkweed around the waterworks at the Brooklyn Bridge Park recently. The monarch is probably our most familiar butterfly. The generation we see here may be the one that, come winged adulthood, makes the epic long march of a flight towards the cool cloud forests…
Backyard and Beyond 