Knox Box of Miscellany

Dawn Knox – A rearranger of words into something hopefully meaningful…

The Beauty of Butterflies – #MuseItUp

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Boy with butterfly on his finger

Little chap enjoying the butterflies

Butterflies mating

Butterflies mating

Dead Leaf butterfly eating orange

Dead Leaf butterfly eating orange

Dead Leaf butterfly showing upper view

Dead Leaf butterfly showing upper view

I’d never visited a butterfly farm before, so I wasn’t prepared for the abundance and variety of butterflies when we visited the Stratford upon Avon Butterfly Farm. I also wasn’t expecting the butterflies to be so tame!

Butterflies obligingly landed on fingers (see the happy little chap on the left, who proudly displayed his new friend), backs, heads, shoulders, in fact just about anywhere. They also carried on their lepidopteran lives as if there was no one there observing them, (see the mating butterflies also on the left).

I loved the colours and the shapes of the exotic butterflies but one creature which really took my attention was the butterfly which looked like a dead leaf. As we entered the enclosure, there were pieces of orange on a table, on which some of the butterflies were feasting. I spotted the butterfly which looked like a dead leaf on one of the orange halves and took a photo of it. I also photographed other butterflies which were enjoying the oranges and it wasn’t until I got home and looked up the dead leaf butterfly to find out more information about it, I discovered that I’d actually photographed the same butterfly from the top and the bottom.

Apparently, the dead leaf butterfly I’d photographed is the Orange Oakleaf or Dead Leaf (Kallima inachus). The third photo is the underside of the butterfly and the fourth photo shows the upperside. What an amazing creature! Beautiful when it wants to be and camouflaged when necessary!

Luckily for Daffodil, she decided to wear a gypsy-styled outfit to the wedding. She had second thoughts just before she left for the church but it was too late to change. Thankfully, although the outfit took a little explaining when Daffodil found herself in the 1800s, it would have been harder to blend in if she’d been wearing a short skirt! Find out what happened in ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’, which you can buy here on the Muse It Up Publishing website. #MuseItUp

 

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