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Several Design Concepts in One - _TNY_4106

This American beauty is a gold rim swallowtail (Battus polydamas), but also known as the tailless swallowtail and Polydamas swallowtail.

 

From this angle, the name "gold rim" seems a bit far-fetched, but the dorsal side of the wings is black with a yellow (or golden) band. To me, that dorsal design doesn't really "match" the ventral side of the wings with red and black accents - and to top it off, the orange spots on the body looks like a third design that somehow all ended up together.

 

This specimen was shot at the Haga Ocean Butterfly House in Solna on the north side of Stockholm, Sweden. I had some wonderful timing with a visit there on the last day of February 2020 - a week and a half before Stockholm shut down due to a certain virus.

 

Part 2 is a closer, focus-stacked shot here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51958320293/

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Uploaded on March 14, 2022
Taken on February 28, 2020