Black Mamba - _TNY_6555
I'm not sure how many visits I've done to the Haga Ocean butterfly hose over the years, but it is at least sixty or seventy times. And yet I still come across species I've never seen before. This is of course not because I have missed them all the previous times, but rather that the species they have vary over time.
Yesterday, I found this gem for the first time. It's an African species known as the black swallowtail or the mamba swallowtail (Graphium colonna). Perhaps the latter name is to be preferred as there is a North American species (Papilio polyxenes) which is also called black swallowtail.
This particular one had eneded up in the water of the moat surrounding the cabinet where all the chrysalides are (the moat is there to keep hungry ants from reaching the chrysalides).
The butterfly had managed to crawl out of the water on its own, but it stayed on the rock here to dry off which wouldn't work as on top of the water is a mist which is there to add humidity which helps the butterflies get out of their chrysalides. It most certainly doesn't help when you want to dry yourself so I moved this one off the rock and to a feeding station which I though was a better place to dry up on.
I think this is an extremely pretty with the gradients from blue through turquoise to green on the stripes and it has the largest tails on the hind wings of any species I've seen there, but unfortunately, this one had quite a lot of the hind wings damaged. Hopefully, I'll see another one in better condition on a future visit.
Black Mamba - _TNY_6555
I'm not sure how many visits I've done to the Haga Ocean butterfly hose over the years, but it is at least sixty or seventy times. And yet I still come across species I've never seen before. This is of course not because I have missed them all the previous times, but rather that the species they have vary over time.
Yesterday, I found this gem for the first time. It's an African species known as the black swallowtail or the mamba swallowtail (Graphium colonna). Perhaps the latter name is to be preferred as there is a North American species (Papilio polyxenes) which is also called black swallowtail.
This particular one had eneded up in the water of the moat surrounding the cabinet where all the chrysalides are (the moat is there to keep hungry ants from reaching the chrysalides).
The butterfly had managed to crawl out of the water on its own, but it stayed on the rock here to dry off which wouldn't work as on top of the water is a mist which is there to add humidity which helps the butterflies get out of their chrysalides. It most certainly doesn't help when you want to dry yourself so I moved this one off the rock and to a feeding station which I though was a better place to dry up on.
I think this is an extremely pretty with the gradients from blue through turquoise to green on the stripes and it has the largest tails on the hind wings of any species I've seen there, but unfortunately, this one had quite a lot of the hind wings damaged. Hopefully, I'll see another one in better condition on a future visit.