Butterflies Over Winnipesaukee

[ApS]

WOW! Very nice photos!

The best way to identify "bugs" is through photographs like these. It is helpful to have both upper- and lower- views of butterflies to aid identification. (But...with living butterflies, anyway—impossible )

Outdoors, near-identical butterflies can be identified by their flying behavior. There are "high-fliers", some with a "darting flight", some flutter, and some are good at "soaring": Notes are a good thing.


1) I can confirm the Palamedes that is "nectaring" on the flower: found in North Carolina, but rarely seen in Delaware—right next door!


In Westford, MA (and likely, Lake Winnipesaukee) are—in order:

2) Mimic female—the male is very different. (I don't know why it's called a Mimic, nor what it's a "mimic" of).

3) The next is a likely one of the Buckeyes—named for the "eyes"—and doesn't appear in my Butterflies through Binoculars book.

4) Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. ("Tiger" for the orange and black stripes—BIG and common-enough—from Canada to Florida).

5) Not located (yet) in my book of Eastern US butterflies.

6) The stripes suggest White Admiral, but not exactly what appears in my book.

Some of these could be imported "bugs", but can also be one of those occasional "hybrids" that can stymie an identification.

I'll "run-this-by" my neighbors with their wide-ranging knowledge and much finer resources.

(The search continues).