butterfly

Making Friends with an Emperor: Hackberry Emperor Butterfly /  by Todd Henson

A hackberry emperor butterfly landed on my pants

While walking the grounds of Blandy Experimental Farm, the State Arboretum of Virginia, I had the opportunity to befriend a hackberry emperor butterfly. It landed on my pants and didn’t want to leave, busily licking my pants with its proboscis, which looks like a very long tongue. Apparently it’s common for this species to land on and lick people for the sodium in their sweat. I have to assume I’d been sweating right through my pants as this little butterfly just didn’t want to leave.

Though it remained on my pants, every so often the hackberry emperor butterfly would flap its wings

A front view of the hackberry emperor butterfly showing off its proboscis

The underside of hackberry emperor butterfly wings are lighter in color than the top

The hackberry in their name comes from the fact they only lay their eggs on the hackberry tree, which provides food for their larvae. When adults they feed on the hackberry sap, but also from sources away from the tree, like dead and decaying animals and fruit, among other things (human sweat).

A closeup view of the head and proboscis of the hackberry emperor butterfly

Interestingly, the hackberry emperor frequents flowers less often than many other butterfly species. And when it does visit a flower it seems to do so very carefully, only reaching in with its proboscis and avoiding touching pollen with its legs or antenna. This means it’s not a very good pollinator and thought of more as a parasitic insect, leeching off plants without providing any benefit to them.

A parting view of the hackberry emperor butterfly perched on my pants

Thankfully, though, it does provide one benefit I’m aware of, and that’s the joy of seeing it. It’s a beautiful little butterfly, and one I hope to encounter again.

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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar /  by Todd Henson

An eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar

Butterflies and moths are some of the fantastic creatures that begin their lives in very different forms, that of caterpillars. I’m not yet very good at identifying caterpillars but some of them are very distinctive, which can help. In this case we have a green caterpillar with what appears to be a large bulbous head with large yellow and black “eyes” and a yellow stripe around its neck and some blue spots around its body. Of course, a lot of this is just decoration, likely to make it appear less appetizing to any nearby predators.

Look at those “eyes” on the eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar

I was fortunate to find this beautiful eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar

After a bit of online searching it appeared I’d found the caterpillar for an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, one of the common and very beautiful species we see here in Virginia. The butterflies can be largely yellow or largely black but I’ve no clue how to tell from the caterpillar which it would become. As luck would have it, the first butterfly I photographed this year was a yellow eastern tiger swallowtail, so here’s a view of it resting on some leaves of the forest floor. We saw the butterfly in early April and the caterpillar in late May

My first view of a butterfly in 2022 happened to be a yellow eastern tiger swallowtail

When I returned to the site of the caterpillar a couple weeks later it was gone. The entire leaf was gone. I had hoped to find the leaf curled up with the chrysalis inside. I’ve read they can stay in chrysalis form for approximately 1 to 3 weeks, so it is possible I was too late. It’s also possible something happened to it. Perhaps it became a meal or a person walking along the boardwalk took it. I’m hopeful it managed the transformation to a butterfly, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to view and photograph it.

This was my first encounter with an eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar. Have you seen any of these before?

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One Afternoon Six Critters /  by Todd Henson

Sometimes I’ll go hiking with one primary goal, such as checking on the pink lady’s slipper orchids, but I end up finding many other subjects, as well. I love those days, when nature just seems to jump out at you and yell, “Hey, look at me!” And of course, I listen. 😀

Below is a collection of six different critters I happened upon one afternoon while out hiking.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

Common whitetail dragonfly

Dragonflies are back. I just love watching and trying to photograph them. I was only carrying my 105mm macro lens, so I didn’t have a lot of reach, but with a little patience I was able to capture one image of this dragonfly when it rested on a log nearby before flying off once again because I was too close.

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle

Six-spotted tiger beetle

Six-spotted tiger beetle. For this photo I used multiple images to create an unplanned focus stacked image with more depth of field than any of the individual shots.

These are very distinctive beetles and fairly easy to see on a sunny day because their metallic green body really shines and they move around very quickly. Motion and color are two of the elements that help me find subjects and this beetle has both. They are usually very skittish and run or fly off when I get too close, which is usually too far away for a decent photo. But in this case I managed to approach one slowly enough, and was actually able to shade it with my shadow so the bright sun didn’t cause glaring reflections on the metallic body. These are fascinating beetles.

Speckled Renia Moth

Speckled Renia moth

This is a very small moth, one I see around quite often but am rarely able to approach close enough as they either blend in so well I don’t see them or they flit off before I get close enough for a photo (this seems to be a common theme). But I happened to see the motion of this one as it flew in front of me and noticed where it landed. So I got down on my knees, slowly approached it and managed to capture this view.

Eastern Fence Lizard

Eastern fence lizard from above

The side of an eastern fence lizard

Another skittish creature that often blends in well with its surroundings is the eastern fence lizard. This particular one has lost its tail, which is usually much longer. It didn’t seem to notice me when I happened to be right beside it while it was on the side of a downed tree so I was able to capture a nice closeup with the macro lens. I then tried to slowly move above it to get a side view but only captured this one image before it turned its head, saw me, and ran off.

Eastern Tailed-blue Butterfly

Eastern tailed-blue butterfly facing left

Eastern tailed-blue butterfly facing right

This is a very small butterfly, another that I’m rarely able to approach close enough. But as happened a lot on this trip I was able to approach it slow enough to capture a couple images while it rotated itself on the rock it had landed on. This one doesn’t have much of the tail from its name. I don’t know if it wore off, or perhaps this is a young one, or they vary from individual to individual, or I’ve completely mis-identified the species.

Black-and-gold Flat Millipede

Black-and-gold flat millipede all straightened out

Black-and-gold flat millipede moving over some leaves

I found this millipede directly in front of me on the trail making its way across it. Thankfully I was able to capture some photos that are reasonably sharp despite the motion. I love the colors on this one. I don’t know if I’d seen this species before, but have now seen a couple more since then.

Have you ever seen any of these critters? What did you think of them?

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