More Flutterbys

ClissAT

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Sep 27, 2015
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Location
Pomona, Qld
Climate
Sub-Tropical
A Swallow Tail grazed on my bougainvillea so I tried to get some images.
Butterflies are notoriously difficult to image live. Just as hard to catch to kill to image so I prefer to take live photos! :pic:

butterfly collage.jpg



Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio aegeus) - male. Also known as Large Citrus Butterfly and Orchard Butterfly. Eastern Australia

To get these photos I was leaning over the verandah rails snapping as fast as my camera would allow. It's at times like this I realize what slow reflexes this expensive camera has. I could have changed settings but it takes maybe a minute to change settings & the flutterby may have fluttered off by then. :D Anyway these are the best images from around 30.

Coffs Harbour Butterfly House says this butterfly lays on lemon trees & I have seen the grubs on my lemon, but mostly at my place & up at Maleny they lay down in the lower stems of the hippeastrums or spider lilies. It's a very large colourful but mostly black grub with lots of curly black spines. There is no mention of it laying on hippies. I have to say the ones I see on the hippies are more colourful than the bird sh!t caterpillars I see on the lemon tree. However this is such a diverse species, there are probably 100 variants.

It's not until you see several photos of the same flutterby as it grazes that you realise they can bend their wings. Look at the shape & angle of the leading edge of the top wing set on this creature as he flew & flitted here & there to each flower. See how the top end of the wings above the diagonal white stripe changes shape depending on whether it is resting, flying, pushing it's proboscis in or hovering. Also he seems to be able to manoeuvre each wing independently. Fascinating! :heart:
 
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