View allAll Photos Tagged WHITESTRIPES
The females of the common mormon (Papilio polytes) can be one of several colour forms. Most of them mimic other, unpalatable species to avoid predation, but one, Papilio polytes f. cyrus, look just like the males (which only come in one flavour).
So this one with the impressive proboscis drinking water from the floor at the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Solna, Sweden, is either a female of that form - or a male. I can't tell them apart.
My mother-in-law's garden has loads of juvenile raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus) during the summer - but I extremely rarely find any adults - which is unfortunate as it is one of the largest spiders we have in Sweden.
This one, which my wife found in a potted corn/maize plant, is not yet adult, but it was still significantly larger than the regular ones.
I (by accident) scared her out of the corn/maize and she landed on the patio and tried out some sort of threat display with front legs and fangs lifted, but soon gave that up and just posed nicely for as many shots as I wanted.
Heliconius is a colorful and widespread genus of brush-footed butterflies known as longwings or heliconians. The genus is distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions of South America as far north as the southern US. The females lay their eggs on Passion flower (Passifloraceae) vines as the larvae eat larvae eat them. Because of the type of plant material Heliconius caterpillars favor and the resulting poisons they store in their bodies, the adult butterflies are usually unpalatable to predators. This warning is announced, to the mutual benefit of both parties, by bright colors and contrasting wing patterns, a phenomenon known as aposematism.
Heliconius butterflies have been the subject of many studies, due to their abundance and the relative ease of breeding under laboratory conditions and because extensive mimicry occurs in this group. From the nineteenth century to the present-day, their study has helped scientists understand how new species are formed and why nature is so diverse.
The Tiger Longwing, Hecale Longwing, Golden Longwing, or Golden Heliconian (Heliconius hecale) is a Heliconiid butterfly that occurs from Mexico to the Peruvian Amazon.
Firespike Odontonema strictum, firespike, cardinal guard, scarlet flame, Acanthaceae
Wings of the Tropics, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami FL
The Doris longwing (Heliconius doris) is a pretty species - but it is also polymorphic, ie its appearance is variable as it and other species mimic each other.
In fact, I am not 100% certain that this is a Doris, but it should be.
Part 1 (more closely cropped) here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53224388640/
Here is a male wolf spider in the Pardosa lugubris group. That isn't to say that it is a Pardosa lugubris as there are three species which look so similar that it is impossible to tell which is which just based on a photo like this one.
The three species are the common forset wolf spider (Pardoisa lugubris), the meadow wolf spider (P. saltans) and P. alacris (which doesn't have a common English name).
When I see one of these at my mother-in-law's place outside Härnösand, 500 km to the north of us, then it must be P. lugubris based on the distribution, but here in Stockholm, it could be any one of the three.
Clinging to the end of a long thin leaf hangning just ~60 cm / 2' above the floor this Lebeau's rothschildia (Rothschildia lebeau) was a very convenient moth to photograph at the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Solna on the northern side of Stockholm, Sweden. Not only because of the height, but also because it didn't move (being a nocturnal moth means they obviously stay as still as possible during the day).
Also, don't those antennae (and that face) look absolutely super cute?
This is a quite spectacular species with a surprisingly chubby body and beautiful silver "windows" on the wings.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51992300131/
Part 2 (even closer) here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52049668558/
Another shot of it showing the dorsal side of the wings here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52022135745/
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It's been a while! This week, I've been feeling under the weather and last one's was so busy! Feeling better now.. even though my throat is still sore. But at least, I could start working on my photos and videos today! 😊
Here's me on a sunny day wearing my favourite colour: black!! But this time, with some white stripes. Short enough to feel sexy and classy enough for a cocktail party.. or at least, that's what I keep telling myself! 😛
As you can see in the pic on the blog, my dance lessons really help! I can turn, twist and twirl in high heels without any problem now! 😃
Find my latest blog-post and YouTube video here!
Unlike most swallowtail butterflies, the lime swallowtail (Papilio demoleus) - like this male - lack the prominent tails which have given them the name so it is a swallowtail without the swallowtail.
Continuing, the species is sometimes called chequered swallowtail, but this name isn't spot on either as it really isn't chequered, but rather black with white spots. Naming butterflies seems hard.
The way to tell this is a male is to look at the red and blue markings on the hind wings. With this much red, this is a male.
On top of a couple of almost completely wilted tansies (Tancetum vulgare), this juvenile raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) had made itself comfortable. I initially though I had scared it away when I bumped my kne aginast the stem of the tansy, and it disappeared, but it turned out it had only hid on the far side of the flower and with a little coaxing with a finger, it was soon back in place again.
This beaut hanging underneath its chrysalis, waiting for the wings to harden, is a white-barred emperor (Charaxes brutus).
I rarely see this African speceis at my butterfly house so it is always nice to get a shot of it.
Since I have visited the Haga Ocean butterfly house quite a lot of times by now, I have picked up a little extra skill at finding the butterflies there.
This yellow-edged giant owl butterfly (Caligo atreus) was quite high up on the trunk of a tree so most other visitors just walked by it, even while I was setting up my camera and tripod to shoot it.
This species is basically the pale giant own butterfly (Caligo memnon) with the colour saturation cranked up to 11.
Unfortunately for me, they rarely sit with their wings open so the orange and blue of the dorsal side is only rarely seen.
Late February isn't the best time for invertebrate photography in Stockholm Sweden (or any part of Sweden really), so I decided to cheat a little and together with my son, I went and visited The Haga Ocean butterfly house on the other side of town.
We had a fun day both there and afterwards a visit to the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Flash photography isn't allowed here so I had to get by with natural light which was a bit of a challenge - but fun.
Anyways, this is a dirce beauty (Colobura dirce), also known as the mosaic or zebra mosaic, one of the smaller species they had around - but still very pretty.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/49822709066/
Back in 2019 I had the pleasure of watching this juvenile raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) run across the water surface in the rain water barrel and pick up a mosquito that had gotten stuck in the water and then how it ate it through the lenses of my camera. I say lenses because at first I was using the Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS plus Raynox DCR-250 and got a bunch of shots before shifting to the Canon MP-E65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro and getting a couple of really high magnification portraits as well.
This one was with the 100mm though and it was fascinating to see through the viewfinder how it kept moving the left and right chelicerae (one at the time) and retract one fang from the prey and then reinsert it before doing the same with the other. No idea what function this serves, but then I don’t usually eat that way.
Part 1 showing how the spider moves its chelicerae while eating here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48734313741/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/50540902938/
Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52052279513/
Three shots of the same spider on a couple of rose petals on the water here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48506742957/, here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48684623271/ and here : www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/50507089932/
Much closer shot using the MP-E here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48515193146/
This beauty which almost looks like it is hovering when you can't see the legs is known as a Sara longwing (Heliconius sara), one of the quite many butterflies which feed on the leaves of the passionflower.
In fact, they have a bit of an arms race going there. The plants developed poison which killed the caterpillars eating the leaves - until they came up with a way to not only be immune to the poison, but in fact store it within themselves, making the caterpillars in turn poisonous.
Caterpillars are no strangers to eating other butterfly eggs so female butterflies are hesitant to lay eggs on leaves which already have eggs on them as those, with a head start, will hatch before their batch and thus most likely eat newer eggs. This fact has led to the pasion flowers having leaves with little dimples on them - which look like eggs and thereby fooling the butterflies that leaf is already taken and therefore looking elsewhere for a spot for their eggs.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52751931220/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52760545555/
Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52819370073/
Because of the type of plant material that Heliconius caterpillars favor and the resulting poisons they store in their tissues, the adult butterflies are usually unpalatable to predators. This warning is announced, to the mutual benefit of both parties, by bright colors and contrasting wing patterns, a phenomenon known as aposematism.
Heliconius antiochus is a member of the sara-sapho group, and a Müllerian mimic of Heliconius wallacei, H. sara and H. congener. The wings are blue-black, with two transverse white or yellow bands on the distal part of the forewings.
Heliconius antiochus from Suriname
Wings of the Tropics, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Wings of the Tropics, Miami, FL.
Here is a female lime butterfly (Papilio demoleus), also known as the chequered swallowtail, citrus swallowtail and combinations of these names. Also the Christmas butterfly.
This is an African species, but there are several "lime butterfly" species which look *very* similar. P. demodocus is found in south and south-east Asia and the two species overlap on the Arabian peninsula. Plus P. morondavana, P. grosesmithi and P. erithonioides which are only found in Madagascar.
Demoleus and demodocus can be distinguished by demodocus having an extra spot on the dorsal wing which this one lacks - so it has to be a demoleus.
Also, the red part ot the two eye spots are large enough to out this as a female.
Part one is framed with the butterfly diagonally to fill the frame as much as possible here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53357859844/
A behind the scenes shot showing how I shot this one here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53375136236/
SOOC
Another shot for the 24 Days of Christmas Igp project.
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An early December (of 2024) visit to the Haga Ocena butterfly house yielded some sots of this and a couple more lime swallowtails (Papilio demoleus), also known as the chequered swallowtail.
This is one of my favourite species, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get any shots showing the dorsal side of the wings this time. Here is one from a previous visit though: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53816447867/
I've complained several times here when posting shots of juvenile raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus) that I never seem to find any adult specimens.
Well, on Midsummer's eve (as in during the day before Midsummer's Day), me and my wife and son had a picnic by lake Långsjön in the Paradiset nature reserve on a very hot day. After eating, my son spotted a, as he put it, "very big boi" down by the waterline.
It turned out to be a male raft spider, not quite fully grown, but still a large spider.
Unfortunately for Mr. Raft here, he had been in some sort of altercation and was getting by on just six legs. He tried running away from us on the water, but there the lack of two legs really hurt him and he was making very poor speed so I put him back on the ground.
My wife snapped a photo of me shooting the spider from the water here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53000746833/ and as you can see, while concentrating to nail focus - I completely forgot not to make a silly face.
A little while after this, another, larger, male raft spider came walking over my wife so I managed to get a couple of shots of that one as well which will follow later on.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52999671762/
Chromodoris africana, or four-coloured nudibranch, is a species of colourful sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chromodorididae.
This species is known from the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean to the southern KwaZulu-Natal coast of South Africa. It is found down to 30m.
This species may grow to 75mm in total length. It is a smooth-bodied nudibranch, with a black ground colour, two white lines running down the notum, which has a white rim, and an orange margin. The gills and rhinophores are yellow to orange.
C. africana feeds on sponges. It is known to eat a species of the sponge genus Negombata. (Wikipedia) Nuweiba, South Sinaï, Egypt
My first visit to Buxworth cutting was in 1972 I think though I have to say I was more interested in steam then and Bahamas was taking a special to Sheffield. Of course it was 4- track then.
So a memory of the location with 31409 heading for Chinley will have to suffice taken in July 1983
My mother-in-law has a large "Flammentanz" rose climbing on the side of her house. Next to it is a water barrel and here some petals from the flowers have fallen into the water.
This became a nice base of operations for a juvenile raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) to run across the water surface from and pick up small insects that had fallen into the water.
Here it is some sort of mosquito which has ended its days as an early lunch for the spider.
A close portrait of the very same spider here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48515193146/
The male male leopard lacewing (Cethosia cyane) is intensly orange. This however, is the female of the same species - decidedly less colourful, but still pretty..
As I understand it, females fly around considerably less and it is up to the male to find her if he wants to get busy.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52049869809/
For the shot of the male. please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52047713818/
Every summer in my mother-in-law's garden outside Härnösand, Sweden, I keep finding juvenile raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus).
Just once in all the year's I've been there have I found an adult one though - which is a shame as they are about as large as spiders in Sweden get which always makes for cool shots.
This female, which jumped out of a corn/maize plant on the patio when my wife was watering it might be the closest to adult after that though.
Unlike the wolf spiders we find there all the time, she wasn't at all interested in running down in the gaps between the planks and just stayed still - which I of course immediately took advantage of and snapped away with the camera.
This is an uncropped 50 megapixel shot so you should be able to zoom in quite a lot and see some nice detail on those eyes.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52285411716/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52499545556/
Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52600253426/
Part 4 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52992806392/
Here is a great eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina) which I came across at a November (of 2024) visit to the Haga Ocean butterfly house.
Do zoom in on the head and you'll see some small but nice water drops on it.
The assortment of butterflies at my local butterfly house varies - which makes it more fun to visit as there is alway the chance of something rare or spectacular.
For the first visit of the year on an overcast January 12th (of 2022) there were an abundance of banded blue morphos - but not much else flying.
I did manage to shoot a new kind of swallowtail for the first time plus this one. This is a yellow-edged giant owl butterfly (Caligo atreus) which was chilling (in good light!) on the side of a wooden pole and allowed some real closeups.
One of the staples at this place is the closely related pale owl butterfly (Caligo memnon), but this is just the second or third time I've come across the more highly saturated species.
Part 1 is taken close enough (and at high enough resolution) that if you zoom in, you can see the individual facets of the compound eye and the wonderful texture of the scales on the wings. You'll find it here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52626609728/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53206003819/
Unfortunately, I never managed to shoot the dorsal side on this visit, but at least they looked spectacular fluttering around over the water there. A (slightly unsharp) shot from March of 2022 showing the dorsal side here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52413402820/
Here is a female lime butterfly (Papilio demoleus), also known as the chequered swallowtail, citrus swallowtail and combinations of these names. Also the Christmas butterfly.
This is an African species, but there are several "lime butterfly" species which look *very* similar. P. demodocus is found in south and south-east Asia and the two species overlap on the Arabian peninsula. Plus P. morondavana, P. grosesmithi and P. erithonioides which are only found in Madagascar.
Demoleus and demodocus can be distinguished by demodocus having an extra spot on the dorsal wing which this one lacks - so it has to be a demoleus.
Also, the red part ot the two eye spots are large enough to out this as a female.
This shot is actually an extra-large one. I rotated the camera 90 degrees and took a photo of the left side and another of the right one and then joined them into one using Kolor Autopano Giga, a now abandoned software intended for stitching together landscape panorama shots - but it stitches butterflies just as good. The resulting shot is a little over 83 megapixel in size.
Part one is is a single shot here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53357859844/
Part 2 is also a single here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53374217212/
A behind the scenes shot showing how I shot this one here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53375136236/
Here is a friendly young raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) I met in the Mjällådalen nature reserve in August (of 2023).
As juveniles, these guys have greenish legs (like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52986368019/) but as adults, the legs darken into the same brown as the body (like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/29583270096/)
This one appears to be somewhere in between.
For a shot of the same spider on my fingertip, please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53608128894/
This dirce beauty (Colobura dirce), also known as the zebra mosaic (for obvious reasons), is doing something a bit odd here.
It isn't immediately obvious if you aren't familiar with this species, but the odd thing is that it is sitting with its head up.
These guys have a clever way of surviving bird attacks in that they have markings at the rear of the wings which sorta looks like ahead. Combining this with sitting with the head down result in an attacking bird which tries to go for the head of the butterfly might mess up and just snap at the rear of the hind wings while the rest of the butterfly gets away.
© Ben Heine || Facebook || Twitter || www.benheine.com
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This is another surreal composition. The background is located
in Brussels, near René Magritte's Museum...
The above image has been created by me with pictures
taken by the Samsung NX10
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For more information about my art: info@benheine.com
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Stories Start and Stories Go
A poem by Peter S. Quinn
Each day of my life a major lift
Feelings made sure to come
Like clouds that somewhere drift
And everything airy is from
Music of day and dreams gone by
Feelings somewhere inside lost
Moods of the clear glowing up sky
Something of deeper dark tossed
Stories start and stories go
Everything on like a new dawn's glow
Faith is as strong as you made it be
Filling the moments alone
Everything come that you need to see
Each in the stepping stone
Yesterdays were like I knew before
Longings of everything inside
You can not be of nothing absolute sure
For life is a road to ride
Stories start and stories go
Everything on like a new dawn's glow
You have my heart and its beat
Telling you from all its tries
Sometimes throbbing in lonely street
Flying in its low and highs
Rivers I knew were wasted away
Going through the streaming arch
Yesteryears comes giving someday
Through every fresh coming march
Stories start and stories go
Everything on like a new dawn's glow
I have a wish just much as you
Never to let go or dry up
There's feeling out drew to new
Filling my empty old coffee cup
Rise to a moment give it a shoot
To the hours of starless night
There'll be moonlight with its thought
Setting the day once again right
Stories start and stories go
Everything on like a new dawn's glow
Every summer in my mother-in-law's garden outside Härnösand, Sweden, I keep finding juvenile raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus).
Just once in all the year's I've been there have I found an adult one though - which is a shame as they are about as large as spiders in Sweden get which always makes for cool shots.
This female, which jumped out of a corn/maize plant on the patio when my wife was watering it might be the closest to adult after that though.
Unlike the wolf spiders we find there all the time, she wasn't at all interested in running down in the gaps between the planks and just stayed still - which I of course immediately took advantage of and snapped away with the camera.
This is an uncropped 50 megapixel shot so you should be able to zoom in quite a lot and see some nice detail on those eyes.
Part 1, more from the front, can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52285411716/
The White Stripes @ Bonnaroo - June 17 2007
I'll be adding more from Bonnaroo to my site shortly.
This image is copyright © Carrie Musgrave. All rights reserved. This photo may not be used under ANY circumstances without written consent. Please contact carrie@livebabylive.com for useage rights.
The common eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina) is called so because of an interesting and unusual behaviour. After laying her eggs, the female positions herself like an umbrella over the eggs to protect them from parasitoid wasps and she will stay on top of them until all eggs have hatched and the caterpillars have crawled off. Tyipcally she has died by then, still protecting her young.
A September (of 2024) visit to my local butterfly house was a very fruitful one when it comes to new species. Even though I have visited the place like fifty or sixty times by now, I still found three or four new (for me) species.
One of those was this female cruiser (Vindula dejone), also known as the Malay cruiser, resting on the spadix of a peace lily (Spatiphyllum wallisii).
This is an Asian species with clear sexual dimorphism, ie the male and female look different. There are also more than 20 recognised subspecies, but I am unsure which one this is.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54006797755/
A female lime butterfly (Papilio demoleus) which had landed on some vines quite high up (2.5m / 8") at my butterfly house.
The way to tell this is a female is by those red and blue spots near the base of the hind wings. Males have the blue and red parts closer to similar in size while females like this one have a significanty larger red portion.
I've complained several times here when posting shots of juvenile raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus) that I never seem to find any adult specimens.
Well, on Midsummer's eve (as in during the day before Midsummer's Day), me and my wife and son had a picnic by lake Långsjön in the Paradiset nature reserve on a very hot day. After eating, my son spotted a, as he put it, "very big boi" down by the waterline.
It turned out to be a male raft spider, not quite fully grown, but still a large spider.
A little while after that one, this, larger, male raft spider came walking over my wife so I managed to get a couple of shots of that one as well.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52999671762/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53017521916/
Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53051655412/
Part 4 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53500419926/
Part 5 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53789901992/
Part 6 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53850765695/
Plus a shot of the first of the two sucking on his feet here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53106545167/