Here are a few of the butterflies I've seen on my walks this week.
This first shot is of a black swallowtail with a Latin name of Papilio polyxenes. There also is a nice fat bumblebee in the background competing for pollen.
Thankfully this black swallowtail was nice and tame and let me take a few shots.
I tried getting a shot from behind but the wind kept sending this guy flying so I could only get a few side shots.
Speaking of wind look at this poor pipevine swallowtail with a Latin name of Battus philenor. It was so windy that it got blown like a leaf against a landscaping net.
It figured it would give up and let the wind let up before trying to fly out of this net.
I believe this is a pearl crescent with a Latin name of Phyciodes tharos. Its wing is a bit tattered but it can still fly just fine. I usually see loads of these little guys in the prairie weeds around here, quite small and easy to overlook.
Now for the king. Sadly as with most photography of butterflies you often get this sliver shots. Just a second before it had its wings right open but now they are closed.
Thankfully there were others around. Monarchs are quite common around here even though the milkweed flowers are over.
In the month of September they start migrating down to Mexico to escape the winter. Then they'll fly back and lay some eggs in spring.
My daughter also found a nice bright red ladybug. This one looks a bit different than the native species around here. I believe it is a multicolored Asian ladybeetle with a Latin name of Harmonia axyridis. They are used for farming here to eat the aphids and they are quite strong so much so that they are starting to outcompete the native species.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)