Butterfly in the Mist - TNY_2277
This shot is a bit softer than it should have been - but there is a reason.
The butterfly house I visit every now and then have a large plexiglas cabinet where they hang bamboo sticks with all the chrysalises and coccoons so they can hatch directly out into the "jungle".
An issue with this is that in a tropically warm garden/jungle/whatever like this, you are bound to get inhabitants you might not particularily want - like cockroaches and ants.
Imagine being an ant in this place. Perfect weather, no winter ever and the humans bring in butterflies as food every week.
In an attempt to not have ants invade the chrysalis/coccoon cabinet, it is built on two poles sticking out of a small pond working as an ant moat and in there they have a machine which produces damp smoke which I figure will increase the humitity of the air which should aid the emerging butterflies to get their wings out and working properly.
Either way, this yellow-edged giant owl butterfly (Caligo atreus) was sitting (standing?) on a rock inside all that smoke so I had to mess a bit with the shot in Photoshop to get it clearer. Bloody pretty butterfly either way.
Butterfly in the Mist - TNY_2277
This shot is a bit softer than it should have been - but there is a reason.
The butterfly house I visit every now and then have a large plexiglas cabinet where they hang bamboo sticks with all the chrysalises and coccoons so they can hatch directly out into the "jungle".
An issue with this is that in a tropically warm garden/jungle/whatever like this, you are bound to get inhabitants you might not particularily want - like cockroaches and ants.
Imagine being an ant in this place. Perfect weather, no winter ever and the humans bring in butterflies as food every week.
In an attempt to not have ants invade the chrysalis/coccoon cabinet, it is built on two poles sticking out of a small pond working as an ant moat and in there they have a machine which produces damp smoke which I figure will increase the humitity of the air which should aid the emerging butterflies to get their wings out and working properly.
Either way, this yellow-edged giant owl butterfly (Caligo atreus) was sitting (standing?) on a rock inside all that smoke so I had to mess a bit with the shot in Photoshop to get it clearer. Bloody pretty butterfly either way.