It’s a rough and tumble world for butterflies. They might look pretty, but butterflies are both tough and sometimes abused. On a recent walk into the mountains, I spotted a swallowtail butterfly fluttering around a lush and narrow swale near a small creek.
The area was already swarming
with dozens of dragonflies and a horde of orangish butterflies I think are variegated fritillary butterflies. When the swallowtail attempted to land on the
head of a musk thistle for a snack, three of the orange butterflies immediately
mobbed it.
The swallow tail circled about
and tried again.
Same result.
On the third attempt, the
swallowtail landed successfully on the thistle flower and remained there long
enough for me to capture several images.
Only in looking at the images later did I notice the damage on the right
wing of the swallowtail.
Obviously, the butterfly has
been in a few skirmishes of some sort.
I have posted a photograph of
the swallowtail along with a fritillary (found online) and two other images I captured
on my hike.
Swallowtail Butterfly
Variegated Fritillary (Photo:
Megan McCarthy)
Tall Tamaracks
Arctic Aster
—Mitchell Hegman
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