Butterflies, I love them, they always make me happy. I do not live in a very hot country but I think maybe in hot countries there are many colours of butterflies. This is a photo of the most common one where I live
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@Eire27 Actually, some species that used to live only in warmer countries are now showing up I colder ones. This particular one used to be seen in southern Europe, but now I have seen it several times already in the middle of Germany (where this picture was taken a week or so ago)
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Hi @JanVanHaver That’s very interesting, I live in Ireland and in July we had the hottest weather since the 1970s and we had many strange insects, spiders and huge jelly fish in the ocean too. Maybe climate change in the world has them all moving around new countries
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Very nice butterfly photos @Eire27 and @JanVanHaver If I may, I’ll add my photos taken today (Aug 21, 2018), at Abma Farms in Wykoff, NJ. The butterfly shown is a Monarch which is fairly common in this region at this time of year. They migrate 2,000 miles to here, and up into Canada, from their Mexico wintering grounds. I have read recently that their population has declined by more than 90% in the past 20 years. The chief reason for the decline is caused by a reduction of available Milkweed plant. The Milkweed plant is the primary food source for both Monarch caterpillars as well as the adult butterflies. Apparently, the widespread use of herbicides, loss of open land and other eco related changes have led to this loss of Milkweed. So lets enjoy the Monarch while it’s still around. Thanks for starting the thread @Eire27
@ilanAbecassis @Rjshagor @LucioV
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When we were living in Kinshasa, Congo, my daughter and I found this cool prickly caterpillar in a park. We brought it to our garden and after a few days of eating leaves it changed to a pupae. We observed every day and after 11 days it emerged into a beautiful butterfly. The different stages can be seen in the composite photo below and you can follow the whole story in this series of photos.
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Beautiful
Woops everyone. My apologies. Without realizing it, the magician inside my computer flipped my photos sideways and I didn’t catch it before I posted. Sorry for that. You’ll have to pretend that in New Jersey the flowers grow sideways. The butterfly is the focus of the picture in any event.
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Very interesting series of photographs and nice photography work @Nick-Hobgood My hat is off to you.
Regards @Koby
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Wow, I love butterflies! This was running against my daughter (he was really scared 
) some days ago
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Hi @Nick-Hobgood Wow, This is Amazing! Wonderful photos and a great experience for your daughter to see nature and see the catapillar turn into a butterfly in real life 
Thanks for sharing
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Hi @Koby what beautiful photos, thankyou for sharing Thankyou too for the information about the Monarch Butterfly, its amazing how far they can travel but it’s sad how much they have declined, as you say, enjoy them while we can
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Hi @LucioV This is a great video, the butterfly looks very big and beautiful too
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Hi @JanVanHaver @LucioV @Koby @Rohit9 @Nick-Hobgood Hi guys I looked in my garden today, no butterflies, but I did find this Bee, and took this photo
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Hi @Nick-Hobgood what fantastic butterfly photos. Its great to see butterflies from such far away places ( far from me anyway) That is so cute, the Emogi butterfly
Hi @Eire27 . Glad you opened this thread to include bees as they go hand in hand with the butterflies.
They are both great pollinators, however the bees carry pollen over their entire bodies as they flit between flowers. Still, butterflies do their fair share of pollinating, too.
The bees wings are so fast, that it makes getting a good photo difficult.
I took these at the same time and place as when taking the butterfly photos in this post. Taken with a Samsung Galaxy S9+.
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Hi @Koby Fabulous photographs! Thanks for sharing and for the information about the Bees. The Bees and the Butterflies work pretty hard for us. I must say all the photos people have contributed to this thread are absolutely beautiful. Thankyou all
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Hi @Nick-Hobgood I think you selected a very appropriate name for the “Emoji” butterfly. And it’s a beautiful photo. Regards @Koby
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