Nature: Butterflies and Moths

Pearly Wood Nymph 珍珠木仙女 (Family Noctuidae, Nocturnal Moths)

In the dark shadows of the night loveliness may surround us and we would not know it. This beautiful night moth, like a pearl hidden in the folds of an oyster, must be searched out and found in the darkness to be appreciated. Such a moth sometimes comes to a light, but more often it is captured by putting out a sweet bait on tree trunks to which the moths come. Such a bait is one made of a mixture of decaying bananas, fermented beer and molasses, which some moths seem to love. The collector then goes out very quietly in the night darkness, carrying a flashlight, turning the light carefully on the trees where the bait has been put. What a mysterious adventure this becomes when you see such beauties of the night as the Pearly Wood-nymph of the under-wing moths sipping greedily at the sweet lure.

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Nature: Butterflies and Moths

Lustrous Copper 光彩夺目的铜蝴蝶 (Family Lycaenidae, Coppers, Blues and Hairstreaks)

In the grasses, in the meadows, by the wood’s edges, down along the sparkling streams, the coppers play. Merry is their dancing and happy their flight from flower to flower. The under-wings are duller than the bright-colored upper-wings so that their defense against enemies is not often to fly from them, but to hide quickly in the grass or flowers, cling to a stem and fold the wings together. The dull colors merge with the foliage around them, hiding them. But sometimes one is seen to fly right into the heart of a copper-colored flower and then the wings are spread flat so that the bright upper wing color merges with the flower’s bright colors.

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Nature: Butterflies and Moths

Leaf Butterfly 枯叶蝶 – Kallima (Family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterfly)

In India flies the most wonderful disappearer of all the butterflies, the Leaf Butterfly. It flies gaily along the sunlight, flashing its beautiful blue, white and black wings, a perfect target for any bird. So a bird dives at it, and it magically vanishes! Where it was there is a dead leaf hanging on the slender branch of a bush or tree. This leaf is so perfectly like other leaves, even fluttering a little in the breeze, with its stem tight against the branch, that you too would look at it again and again and never realize it was a butterfly. The butterfly has simply folded its beautiful wings tightly together and clung onto the branch so that you see only the leaf-like underside.

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Nature: Butterflies and Moths

Red Admiral 红纹丽蛱蝶 / 大西洋赤蛱蝶 (Family Nymphalidae, the Brush-footed Butterflies)

Surely admiral is a good name for this butterfly, for, like to great adventurous admirals of history, Columbus, Magellan, Drake and Perry, the Red Admiral has voyaged far and wide across the world. From the brilliant snows of Fujiyama in Japan to the dark ramparts of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, all over Europe and westward to Iceland, Greenland and Canada the Red Admiral has adventured. Covering the United States with its flashing beauty, it has even dared to invade the tropics as far south as Guatemala.

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Nature: Butterflies and Moths

California Sister (Family Nymphalidae, the Brush-footed Butterflies)

When you first see a California Sister you are liable to think “that butterfly looks like it is made of candy!” The bright orange-yellow spot at the outer end of the front wing, the bright white bands and spots on both wings, and the other beautifully arranged blue, yellow, orange and brown markings indeed give the feeling of a mixture of butterscotch, caramel, white taffy and brown chocolates.

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