View allAll Photos Tagged redspots
I have no idea if the caterpillar of the knot grass moth (Acronicta rumicis) is a fussy eater - but it sure is a fuzzy eater. This one was happily muching away at a pink (and also fuzzy) house leek (Sempervivum tectorum).
Another thing I do not know is if there is a purpose about that chevron on the face, but I think it looks very cool.
Profile shot of the entire caterpillar here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48506288841/
Portrait here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48625898816/
Another portrait: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48728516247/
Just like the black ladybird with small red markings from yesterday (here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53949823946/), this one was taken on the same trip but is a different (if still related) species.
This one is a pine ladybird (Exochomus quadripustulatus), or pine lady beetle, and just like it's cousin, it is quite small at around 3-4 mm (.14") and feed on aphids and scale insects.
This one I found running over the face of a large cut-down tree so it was a bit of a sports-photography moment with trying to shoot a moving and very small beetle and get the face in focus at 1.8:1 magnification, but I got two working shots in the end.
The narrow-bordered five-spot burnet (Zygaena lonicerae) is a very pretty moth - but with all that soft black fur sucking up all the light, it can be a very difficult motive to photograph.
This one did it's best to be helpful, staying atop the thistle for a very long time and it was actually I who left before the moth did.
Part 1, with a dark background here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48299552266/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48625791063/
I found this caterpillar hiding on the underside of a leaf in the Mjällådalen nature reserve and when turning the leaf, it bent its head back like this.
The spacies has a very cool-sounding English name - this is a coxcomb prominent (Ptilodon capucina) and will eventually turn into a fuzzy brown and white moth.
Other noteworthy features are the red feet and the little splashes of red along the yellow side stripe.
This beautiful butterfly I found at the Haga Ocean butterfly is a species known as the variable cracker (Hamadryas feronia) or blue cracker.
The reason they are known as "crackers" is that they are able to make a cracking sound using their wings which is used either for warding off other males or courting females - I'm not sure which.
I haven't photographed it before - but I have a photo of the chrysalis which looks quite peculiar here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53591458444/
A two spot ladybird on a little weed which has some similarities to a dandelion but is much, much smaller.
Update...Thanks to 'The Neepster' for plant ID. It's a Groundsel, Senecio vulgaris...of the Daisy family :-) ...and to 'alfvet' for the ladybird ID ...Adalia bipunctata.
The narrow-bordered five-spot burnet (Zygaena lonicerae) is a very pretty moth - but with all that soft black fur sucking up all the light, it can be a very difficult motive to photograph.
This one did it's best to be helpful, staying atop the thistle for a very long time and it was actually I who left before the moth did.
Here is a shot from a November 13 (of 2024) wisit to the Haga Ocean butterfly house.
I initially mistook this one for one of the various female colour forms of the common mormon (P. polytes), but seeing the two large white spots on the other side of the wings ruled that out and I now know this to be a male red Helen swallowtail (Papilio helenus helenus).
A shot of the same specimen where the large white spots are showing here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54139816019/
The ruby-spotted swallowtail (Papilio anchisiades) is far from the most common butterfly to come across at the Haga Ocean butterfly house, but I have at least seen them a couple of times by now. This one is a male..
One thing I have noticed about these is that they seem quite fond of landing on the ground. And the ground at a butterfly house really isn't that great a place to hang out when you're a butterfly.
Way too many visitors walk around looking up after butterflies, not only not seeing the ones on the ground, but also accidentally stepping on them.
This one had managed to soak its wings in the water on the floor so the wings were kind of sticking to the stone which certainly didn't make it more mobile.
Now, I gently moved it to a rock next to the path where it was out of the way for large shoes, but five minutes late when I passed again, it had moved back to the same dangerous spot.
For a shot showing the other side of the wings, have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54218842308/
I am unable to ID this butterfly. I mean, I know its one of the Heliconius species - but there are several very similar among them and they also mimic each other plus sometimes hybridise so it will still end up as Heliconius sp. for me.
I saw this one at the Haga Ocean butterfly house in early November of 2024.
I found this Lowe's swallowtail (Papilio lowii), also known as the great yellow mormon and the Asian swallowtail on the floor right in front of the chrysalis cabinet at the Haga Ocean butterfly house.
But since people walking there tend to look up at the chrysalides, there is an obvious risk of any butterflies on the floor getting trampled. My solution was to have her climb onto my finger and then put her down on the spadix of this large peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii) - which as a bonus made for a lovely backdrop for the photo.
I made a really sweet find at the Haga Ocean butterfly house almost exactly a year ago ago - a pink rose (Pachliopta kotzebuea - sometimes Atrophaneura kotzebuea), also known as the velvet rose, which posed nicely for me.
In the wild, this species can be found in the Philippines and I think it is an absolute stunner! The only thing I don't get is how someone sees this black and red masterpiece and decide to name it "the pink rose".
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53573304916/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53653353383/
This species belong (for obvious reasons) to the red-bodied swallowtails and are mimicked by the scarlet mormon which looks like this: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53653353393/
Just a blue-banded morpho (Morpho achilles) having a snack on one of the plastic flowers used as feeding stations at the Haga Ocean butterfly house back in early 2022 when I hadn't begun using a tripod there so this is handheld - which is why I had to use a larger apterure.
Most butterflies prefer to rest with their wings closed, but the blue morphos seem to be more prone to show the colours of the dorsal side of the wings than most.
This peleides blue morpho (Morpho peleides) was absolutely cool with me coming close - both with the camera here, but also with the phone camera, capturing a short video of it and how the wings shimmer here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54056957593/
And when I say "close" - this shot wasn't taken particularily close, both as I had the 180 mm Marco plus 2x teleconverter on the camera, but also as the blue morphos are large butterflies and can have a wingspan of 20 cm (nearly 8").
Here is what I believe to be a mylotes cattleheart (Parides eurimedes) on a plastic lily serving as a feeding station at the Haga Ocean butterfly house.
This shot is from March of 2023 when I was still using a Canon 100mm macro lens instead of the 180 mm macro plus 2x teleconverter I use nowadays.
A very fresh and rather striking king swallowtail (Papilio thoas) I found on an August 20th (of 2025) visit to the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Solna, Sweden.
This species looks very similar to the giant swallowtail (P. cresphontes), but they differ just ever so slightly in the yellow markings.
My new friend here was a very good model and posed both with the wings closed like here and with them open for me.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54733705370/
I found this Lowe's swallowtail (Papilio lowii), also known as the great yellow mormon and the Asian swallowtail on the floor right in front of the chrysalis cabinet at the Haga Ocean butterfly house.
But since people walking there tend to look up at the chrysalides, there is an obvious risk of any butterflies on the floor getting trampled. My solution was to have her climb onto my finger and then put her down on the spadix of this large peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii) - which as a bonus made for a lovely backdrop for the photo.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54146349840/ is a regular single shot, but this one here is a stiched shot made from four exposures, resulting in a 132 megapixel panorama shot.
Look at how the red patches on the abdomen of this Eriothrix rufomaculatus fly almost perfectly match the edges of the wings. Pretty neat!
This is a tachinid fly and they parasitise on moths in that the fly's larva develop inside the subterranean larvae of, crambid, lappet, ermine and tiger moths.
On a visit to the Haga Ocean Butterfly House on the 24th of April (2023), I found a real treat - two males of the species known as the pink rose (Pachliopta kotzebuea).
They were initially hanging out in the chrysalides cabinet and the grating below it (where this and part 1 was taken), but eventually first one and then the other one took off. Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52904505677/
After a bit of searching, I managed to locate and shoot them both. One of the shots which I'm very pleased with can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52843014524/
This species belongs to the group known as the red-bodied swallowtails (no points for guessing why) which are interesting. As I understand it, these are poisonous and the red colour is a warning to predators that they are unpalatable.
But since it is butterflies, there is a whole bunch of mimicry involved. The mormon butterflies like the great yellow mormon (Papilio lowi) and scarlet mormon (Papilio rumanzovia) all try and mimic these to piggyback on the defensive tactics of the red-bodied species.
Do take the time to zoom in on the eye of this one. The Sigma 180 mm macro lens managed to capture some sweet detail on the compound eye, even showing the individual facets.
Here is a shot of a scarlet mormon (Papilio rumanzovia) - I'm sure you can see the mimicry: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52793446159/
P.S.
In case you're wondering about the origin of the scientific name, it was named by naturalist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz for his commander named Otto von Kotzebue on the Russian ship The Rurik on its circumnavigational voyage from 1815-1818. The same von Eschscholtz also named P. rumanzovia after the Russian chancellor Nikolai Rumyantsev, presumably on the same trip.
I work nights and begin work at 17:00 / 5.00 pm and since the Haga Ocean butterfly house is located in Solna which is on the way to work, I find myself quite often going to work a couple of hours early and drop in to see if there are any cool butterflies around that day.
They close at 16:00 / 4.00 pm which is probably a good thing as I suspect I would constantly be cutting it close if they were opened longer.
Anyways, for this visit, the clock was coming up on 16:00 an Markus of the staff reminded me that it was time to pack up so I figured I had time for one more and got a good shot of a butterfly befor starting to fold up the tripod when I saw this one sitting low on a tree trunk.
It's a female great yellow mormon
(Papilio lowii suffusus), aka the Asian swallowtail. Or P. lowi is the great yellow mormon, the ones with this colouration is a subspecies known as P. lowi suffusus.
The Redspot Duke, Dophla evelina, is a species of brush-footed butterfly found in Asia.
Male upperside somewhat dark metallic green. Fore wing : cell with two median sinuous short black transverse lines with a crimson spot between them, two similar lines beyond, one before, one after apex of cell; followed by a dark irregular transverse shading between the veins; apex of wing broadly and termen narrowly edged with an obscure dark shading. Hind wing with a slender black loop in cell; very obscure discal and sub terminal dark macular bands and the anterior third of the wing purplish.
Underside sap-green, largely suffused with plumbeous grey. Fore wing has the transverse black slender lines and crimson spot as on the upperside ; a very obscure subterminal series of dark spots parallel to terminal margin. Hindwing has three crimson spots encircled by slender black loops near base, and a very obscure subterminal series of dark spots in continuation of that on the fore wing, but obsolescent posteriorly. Antennae brown; head with a crimson streak behind the eyes; thorax and abdomen greenish brown, beneath greyish.
Female very similar, with precisely similar markings above and below, but the ground-colour on upperside paler and especially pale on the terminal halves of the wings, in contrast with the darker basal portions.
A Herring gull on the wall of the breakwater in Peel wondering what I was doing. Either that or he was looking to see if I had any food!
The Low's swallowtail (Papilio lowii) is also know as the great yellow mormon and the name can feel a bit odd for a butterfly which really isn't that yellow. This specimen had the abdomen as yellow as any I've seen so here it at least fits a bit.
Finally, I had a bird that would show a bit of color in the sunlight. He was a cutie.
Immature Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
Turk's Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus)
Bath House Pollinator Garden, White Rock Lake Dallas Texas
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com
A very fresh and rather striking king swallowtail (Papilio thoas) I found on an August 20th (of 2025) visit to the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Solna, Sweden.
This species looks very similar to the giant swallowtail (P. cresphontes), but they differ just ever so slightly in the yellow markings.
My new friend here was a very good model and posed both with the wings closed like here and with them open for me.
When visiting the Haga Ocean butterfly house, I typically come away with shots of a whole bunch of species, but on my August 30th visit (of 2024), I shot nothing but this species, the pink rose (Pachliopta kotzebuea), also known as the velvet rose.
This is a bit of a special species among the ones I've seen there with the spectacular red body and the matte black wings. And this time there were around ten of them which had recently hatched.
Ideally, the leaf on the right wouldn't have been there to block the sword on the hind wing, but I still think it turned out as a neat shot.
Part 1 is actually the shot I took directly after this one of different specimen - but still the same species here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53961609901/
Please do not use my photos without my explicit permission. All my photos are under full copyright ©
Spending Midsummer's Eve (the afternoon of the day called "eve" I mean) with the family at lake Långsjön in the Paradiset nature reserve with a picnic and some lovely swimming, I managed to find the time to pop over to the even smaller lake Svartsjön (literally "black lake") and tried sneaking up on some of the many dragonflies that were perched on branches leaning put over the water.
The one in focus here is a male small whiteface (Leucorrhinia dubia) and out of focus in the background is a four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata)
The whiteface was actually chill enough to allow me to get a couple of better closeups, like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52217299897/
When visiting the Haga Ocean butterfly house, I typically come away with shots of a whole bunch of species, but on my August 30th visit, I shot nothing but this species, the pink rose (Pachliopta kotzebuea), also known as the velvet rose.
This is a bit of a special species among the ones I've seen there with the spectacular red body and the matte black wings. And this time there were around ten of them which had recently hatched.
Jupiter from the morning of August 8th. Had some near perfect seeing from my location with average transparency due to heat and humidity from the day. Of note for the Great Red Spot (GRS) is at the 8 to 9 O'clock position is a flake which is a piece of material being throw off of the GRS. Also of note is a small dark spot in the STBn at about a little bit off the 9 )'clock poistion of the GRS that has has been caught in a U-turn current and in this image is seen shifting northward and is now moving in the opposite direction. Meade 12" LX200, ZWO ASI 174MM
Another one from the weird paint job dept. Here's a red-backed alder sawfly (Eriocampa ovata), a prety small species whose larvae (not surprisingly given its name) feed on various species of alder.
No idea what the story behind the red spot is, but it sure made it stick out on a leaf in Åva-Stensjödal in Tyresta National Park. Also, that pitting on the head and thorax came out pretty neat in this shot.
Parides is a genus commonly known as cattlehearts - and this one from the Haga Ocean butterfly house is absolutely one of the 40-ish species in the genus.
Previously, I have photographed the mylotes cattleheart (P. eurimedes), but for this one, I can't say which species it is so the identification will have to stop at Parides sp.
Regardless of species, this was a very pretty one with the cool red spots on the hair on the thorax.