It’s sort of amazing that I’ve maintained an insect photography site for years without including any butterflies or moths. Partly, that’s because Lepidoptera remains something of a mystery to me. Lepidopteran taxonomy employs different characters than I’m used to using, and photographing the larger, showier adults requires a completely different set of optics than the camera kit I’ve assembled for shooting ants & beetles. Plus, the group certainly doesn’t lack people willing to photograph them, especially the spectacularly colorful butterflies.
Yet, Lepidoptera are important insects. Their larvae are our planet’s premier herbivores, consuming tremendous quantities of plant tissue. Over millenia, they have shaped botanical physiology into the forms & flavors we recognize in modern plants.
Thus, I have caved to the need to recognize these animals with their own image gallery:
Lovely Lepidoptera
Enjoy!
Who could possibly the talented photographer whose reflection graces the Tithorea chrysalis?
Yeah, yeah, the scaly wings are pretty and all, but how about an Odonata gallery!
Yeah, how about?
When I try to photograph butterflies they are seriously uncooperative. They are always folding or opening their wings so you can’t possibly get a sense of the color patterns. Argh!
Always wondered were the lep photos were!