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.