Basically Nectar. Thoas Swallowtail, Heraclides thoas, on Malvaviscus arboreus, Ladies Teardrop, Iguaçu National Park, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
From the back of our hotel I made my way along a rough track to the Iguaçu River upstream from those Magnificent Waterfalls. Wonderful walk with more Butterflies and Insects of various sorts and Wildflowers than I've ever seen before during such a relatively short hike.
Lots of delightful crimson Malvaviscus arboreus, Ladies Teardrop - perhaps appropriate for some on this Good Friday. Butterflies abounded and Teardrop was particularly partial to Thoas Swallowtail, Heraclides thoas. The air around the shrubbish trees was full of them.
It's hard to imagine that even a Butterfly with a very long tongue can reach the nectaries of Teardrop from the Flower's natural opening from which project Stamens and Pistil - clearly to be seen in this photo. Thoas generally makes for the flower's base which houses its nectaries. But how can it access their sweetness without teeth to tear through the green and red covering?
Well, Nature is rather wonderful. Other insects gnaw through that covering and leave a little hole, and it's through that hole that Thoas can easily insert its tongue to suck up Nectar.
Which insects have done this selfservice and provided a help to our Flutterers as well I don't know. They could be Bees; elsewhere I've seen Bumblebees gnaw their way to those nectaries; or perhaps Carpenter Bees, or even the Little Black Bee in the inset which I haven't identified. She and her companions were as it were holding court right at the base of quite a number of those Ladies Teardrops. All to serve the King, for Thoas was a Greek one in mythology.
Basically Nectar. Thoas Swallowtail, Heraclides thoas, on Malvaviscus arboreus, Ladies Teardrop, Iguaçu National Park, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
From the back of our hotel I made my way along a rough track to the Iguaçu River upstream from those Magnificent Waterfalls. Wonderful walk with more Butterflies and Insects of various sorts and Wildflowers than I've ever seen before during such a relatively short hike.
Lots of delightful crimson Malvaviscus arboreus, Ladies Teardrop - perhaps appropriate for some on this Good Friday. Butterflies abounded and Teardrop was particularly partial to Thoas Swallowtail, Heraclides thoas. The air around the shrubbish trees was full of them.
It's hard to imagine that even a Butterfly with a very long tongue can reach the nectaries of Teardrop from the Flower's natural opening from which project Stamens and Pistil - clearly to be seen in this photo. Thoas generally makes for the flower's base which houses its nectaries. But how can it access their sweetness without teeth to tear through the green and red covering?
Well, Nature is rather wonderful. Other insects gnaw through that covering and leave a little hole, and it's through that hole that Thoas can easily insert its tongue to suck up Nectar.
Which insects have done this selfservice and provided a help to our Flutterers as well I don't know. They could be Bees; elsewhere I've seen Bumblebees gnaw their way to those nectaries; or perhaps Carpenter Bees, or even the Little Black Bee in the inset which I haven't identified. She and her companions were as it were holding court right at the base of quite a number of those Ladies Teardrops. All to serve the King, for Thoas was a Greek one in mythology.