(Prompted by https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2025/08/friday-writings-191-small-but-beautiful.html )
The large to giant, showy Swallowtails
and Birdwings always catch everyone's eyes
yet smaller eyes find just as much to admire
on the small wings of tiny butterflies.
This one has orange spots to rouse desire
wherever, following scent trails, she flies
attracting plain blue-winged little males
to places where blue lupines catch her eyes.
[photo: MassAudubon.org]
Meanwhile this species' females may have blue
spots on orange wings; they use them the same way,
except that, unlike Karner's Blue ones, they
eat more than one thing; always choose "weeds," too.
Obligingly, this minuscule insect
likes several plants that humans don't protect.
At the rate we're going it'll take this web site years to get to a study of the little Blue and Copper butterflies. Just like the Swallowtails, they either ignore or actively help plants of interest to humans. They're much easier to photograph than Swallowtails. Possibly because nobody feels proud of having caught a good photo of a Blue or Copper, they are currently very under-documented on science sites. Each of their wings is, in real life, about the size of a human fingernail. They are global, with different species in different places, but scientists think the most common species were inadvertently introduced to new places as humans travelled until species like the Common Copper became almost cosmopolitan.
The Karner Blue species, in which males are plain blue and females have orange spots, is endangered. Conservation efforts have included naming it as the State butterfly of New Hampshire.
I like the attention you've given butterflies. As part of the wider endangered world, I thought of the Carl Sagan quote: "We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever."
ReplyDeletePerfect quote! Thank you!
DeletePK
A beautiful poem ~ yellow butterflies in particular entrance me, they are my Mother come to say Hello.
ReplyDeleteWe should be looking at the big yellow Swallowtails in the next year or so. It'll take a while to get to the smaller yellow Sulphurs--though they're also pretty, cheerful, harmless animals...
DeletePK
What beautiful wee things! Wikipedia tells me both are American, and although the Common Copper has travelled to other countries, not to the Southern Hemisphere so far. I am fascinated by American fauna and flora and fauna we don't have here – though I expect that operates in reverse too.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, *fauna and flora (only) ... though you certainly do seem to have extra varieties of both.
DeleteOh it does! What Americans tend to think of as Australian are kangaroos--I've heard them say on hearing where someone comes from, "So do you have a lot of kangaroos?" as if the animals were pets. Some of us are informed enough to be fascinated by wombats and Tasmanian Devils too... :-) I've researched a few Australian butterflies here. The recent Nautilus video of deep sea creatures off Palau seemed to get more of a counter-reaction to the narrators' excessive enthusiasm than appreciation of the wildlife, though...
DeletePK
Wikipedia says Australia has small Blue butterfly species similar to ours, but also some stunning larger butterflies with blue-and-white spotted wings. It says Australia's "small copper" butterflies are in a different genus though they look similar to ours.
DeleteIt'll take years to work my way to those species, but links and information are always welcome!
PK
oh beautiful I love butterflies So delicate and colourful and so miraculously emerging from a chrysalis. Love that blue one
ReplyDeleteIsn't she special! Even the common Blue butterflies are pretty, though...and their numbers are declining.
DeletePK
What a delightful post! :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeletePK
I love how you have divided this up - giving each butterfly it's due - Jae
ReplyDeleteThank you! Our local Blue butterflies don't have orange spots nor do our Copper ones have blue spots. I was bemused by the fact that in some species the females do.
DeletePK
Pretty butterflies all. I don't think New Hampshire had a National Butterfly when I lived there.
ReplyDeleteSome States have yet to name their favorites, and some have chosen their State butterflies only recently.
DeletePK
For real science nerds, there's a whole group of under-documented, really tiny moths called Microlepidopterae. Some of them are drab, and some have either beautifully subtle neutral-color patterns, or vivid, colorful, tiny wings--each wing a quarter-inch long. I don't expect to live long enough to get to them but they're an interesting family to study, with lots of opportunities to explore new ground.
ReplyDeletePK
Thanks for sharing. They are small, yet so colourful. Over here, there's a tiny butterfly with bright yellow wings and it seems is quite common. Small butterflies are really hard to photograph.
ReplyDeleteI'll take your word...maybe hard to zoom in close enough to get clear pictures? Our common species of Blues and Coppers are easy to observe, anyway. They'd probably eat (or drink) out of your hand if you sat still and held out a watermelon rind.
DeletePK
They are a flying miracle. I hope we manage to keep them...
ReplyDeleteI do too!
DeletePK
A standout in nature, small beauties. This morning I saw a black butterfly for the first time.
ReplyDelete