PeekABoo Great Yellow Mormon Butterfly
by Karen Adams
Title
PeekABoo Great Yellow Mormon Butterfly
Artist
Karen Adams
Medium
Photograph - Fine Art Digital Prints - Photography
Description
When you are on the look out for butterflies in a conservatory, you really have to be aware and look everywhere . . . because they are very quiet little hiders! When I saw this one, I made a little gasp, almost loud enough to scare her away, but luckily she seemed curious of me as well and so she graciously obliged and let me take a shot or two.
The Asian Swallowtail may also be called the Great Yellow Mormon Butterfly. This is a macro shot of a female Great Yellow Mormon (Papilio memnon, Scientific Name: Papilio Lowi.) It is a large butterfly with a wingspan of 4-5". This species is endemic to Southeast Asia, mainly found in Borneo, Indonesia, & the Philippines.
Asian Swallowtails are sexually "dimorphic" meaning that males and females have different colors and/or patterns. There are some 14 subspecies over its range and many different forms.
The male Great Mormon has four recognized forms, mainly black with blue streaked hind wings and usually no tail. He may or may not have red "shoulders" on the top side.
The male has red "shoulders" and red and blue markings on the underside. The red hind wing marks are reminiscent of the Scarlet Mormon male.
On the other hand, the female has some TWO DOZEN recognized forms! Some have tails and some don't. Some forms mimic other distasteful Swallowtail butterflies (such as the Pink Rose and the Blue Mormon). The female pictured here has tails with pink around eye-spots, yellow body and thick black veins.
Much of this information was obtained from various websites including www.animalphotos.me and preservecompany.com/blogs
This was taken at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, at their annual 'Butterfly and Blooms' display that runs most of the summer. It is a magical wonderland of luscious plants, waterfalls and butterflies floating in the air! These types of displays help to instill a sense of wonder and unity with nature and the world. I spent much of my time taking photos, but the other half of my time was spent absorbing the atmosphere and enjoying the thrill expressed by others as they spotted a new creature sitting on a flower or fluttering in the air right past their faces! If we learn to love the creatures of the earth, when they need our help we will be ready to fight for them. The world will lose a great deal if any of these become extinct!
I really appreciate you taking time to look at my artwork. Thank you so much!
I am very concerned with our environment and have decided to donate any money I make from any sales of this image to the ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND.....because the Earth needs a good lawyer! We all need to speak up and support efforts to protect our environment. We will not get a second chance!
A big thank you to the administrators of the following groups for featuring this image on their home pages!
Groovy Butterflies
Comment For Comment
Images That Excite
Macro Marvels
Macro Photography
Uploaded
February 6th, 2018
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Viewed 732 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/25/2024 at 12:30 AM
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Comments (8)
Karen Adams
Thank you so much, John, for Featuring this image on the Images That Excite group home page!
Karen Adams
Thank you, Doug for the honor of being featured on the Macro Marvels group page!......fv