Identification Woes - _TNY_1957
When identifying butterflies after having shot them, there are a few things that make it more difficult.
First, there are sides. Let's say you shot a nice-looking butterfly (like this one), but you only get shots of the underside. This effectively makes all photos of the dorsal side meaningless for identification.
Second, sexual dimorphism. By this, I mean that in some species the female and male look different so all shots of the male are useless if you have happened to capture a female.
So back to this one. I found her (as it is a female) on the wet stone floor at the Haga Ocean butterfly house and managed to get a couple of good photos before I proceeded to lift her up and place her on a tree trunk so that she wouldn't be at risk of being crushed underfoot by some visitor that didn't bother to look down every now and then.
Unfortunately, a pesky little ant bit her foot which made her take off and land on my lens (here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52753405856/)
With males typically having more spectacular colours, this means the species is named for them rather than the more drab female which makes searching by name less of an option.
This particular one is one where the name isn't very obviously connected to the male - and not at all to the female. Say hello to a female blue-frosted banner (Catonephele numilia), also known as the blue-frosted banner, blue-spotted firewing, blue-frosted Catone, Grecian shoemaker or stoplight Catone.
For a shot of what the (very different) male looks like, please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52376943939/
Identification Woes - _TNY_1957
When identifying butterflies after having shot them, there are a few things that make it more difficult.
First, there are sides. Let's say you shot a nice-looking butterfly (like this one), but you only get shots of the underside. This effectively makes all photos of the dorsal side meaningless for identification.
Second, sexual dimorphism. By this, I mean that in some species the female and male look different so all shots of the male are useless if you have happened to capture a female.
So back to this one. I found her (as it is a female) on the wet stone floor at the Haga Ocean butterfly house and managed to get a couple of good photos before I proceeded to lift her up and place her on a tree trunk so that she wouldn't be at risk of being crushed underfoot by some visitor that didn't bother to look down every now and then.
Unfortunately, a pesky little ant bit her foot which made her take off and land on my lens (here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52753405856/)
With males typically having more spectacular colours, this means the species is named for them rather than the more drab female which makes searching by name less of an option.
This particular one is one where the name isn't very obviously connected to the male - and not at all to the female. Say hello to a female blue-frosted banner (Catonephele numilia), also known as the blue-frosted banner, blue-spotted firewing, blue-frosted Catone, Grecian shoemaker or stoplight Catone.
For a shot of what the (very different) male looks like, please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52376943939/