This season in my garden we do not have many butterflies, I think our weather in the spring with it being so cold has something to do with it. I did happen to catch this beauty when she stopped. Otherwise the only other ones I have seen are the small yellow and white ones that we call sulphur butterflies..I did see a small black one but he was moving too fast to check him out. Now I would guess him to be a viceroy.... I am hoping that next spring and summer we get our butterflies back....I am hoping that all the chemicals that are used are not affecting them. I would hate to think of a garden without beautiful butterflies flying around. All of my neighbors have their lawns sprayed a lot ....I use an organic fertilizer on our lawn.
WOW what a wonderful, clear photograph Sherry. :-D I hardly ever get good butterfly piccies are they move so fast.
That's a Monarch. On the underwing you can see the markings from the body out are long, one has a rounded end with several markings coming from it to the end of the wings and some even reach the wings edge. Also on the left of the picture you can see the other wing in a top view, ignoring the rows of white spots that outline the edges of the wings (they both have those) there two oblong orange spots near the outer edge then one tiny orange spot right under a largesh white spot. Those are Monarch markings The Vicerory has a black band running across it's wings and there are four more rectangluar shaped orange markings at the outer edge of the forewing.
Butterfly I thought my butterflies were Monarchs, but now i'm not sure. If someone could look at the pic on my blog, let me know. gardengater.
Gardengater are you referring to the picture of the butterfly in your blog entry titled 'Photos' ? That's a Tiger Swallowtail... Papilio glaucus (Eastern) or Papilio rutulus (Western) There are several Swallowtail species and they are all beautiful.
