Saturday, September 28, 2013

Metalmarks

I found a small butterfly on a tangle of cactus and vines.



The brown and coppery orange colored butterfly was not so easy to see on the purple-tipped milkweed flowers.


White dots on the butterfly's wings mimicked the white parts of flowers...


and the butterfly's green eyes matched the color of flower stems.


After a while, I noticed there were more metalmarks already on the milkweed.  While buzzing bees and bigger butterflies flitted from one blossom to another, the metalmarks would stay quietly on a flower cluster for a long time allowing me to take their pictures.

Palmer's Metalmark on Rambling Milkweed

Over 1,000 species of metalmarks occur around the world, named for the silver, gold or copper colored areas on their wings.

Linking to Camera Critters.

15 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

it is beautiful. :)

Anonymous said...

Very elegant photography of a beauty of nature ~
carol ^_^

angryparsnip said...

I love the black and white photo showing us how well they blend in.
But I must say I couldn't see them in the first photo.

cheers, parsnip

Unknown said...

Very pretty!

Candace said...

I've had a variety of b-flies in my Phoenix yard but none of those. I'm jealous!

Karen said...

Lovely captures. They are very well camouflaged on the flowers.

Barb said...

They are well camouflaged! Their lime-green eyes are beautiful.

JB said...

Beautiful pictures of butterfly. And very curious green eyes.
JB

eileeninmd said...

Pretty butterfly and images! Happy weekend!

rainfield61 said...

They are flowers that fly.

And hence every of them are never separated.

Pat said...

I enlarged these to see the beautiful details. Great shots.

VioletSky-Sightlines said...

I would not have thought a b&w version would be so nice! the details show up beautifully!

Betty Manousos said...

hi diane,

love your little gems!

well done:)

Laura said...

oh how beautiful Diane! thank you for sharing this lovely visitor with us.

Loree said...

What a strange name for a pretty butterfly.