@Joe Riley If I recall correctly, the beautiful greenish-blue one is the "Tiger Swallowtail". Checking. Nope, memory fault, again:
I still think they are pretty, and I don't care what they eat! lol. I just don't seem to see butterflies the way I used to. We sure get moths around here though. I had one on my door...it's wingspread was as big as a medium size birds. I kid you not. Cat loves to eat moths...but I think I would have had to draw the line on that critter!!
It's so funny that you mention the giant moths. First one I saw here I freaked out. Thought it was a light brown bat! Never saw one so big in my life.
@Chrissy Page Until you see a "Hummingbird Moth" at work, ya ain't seen nuthin', as the guy says. Not quite as large as the Cecropia, nor bright-colored,. they use their wings just like hummingbirds, and hover over the blossoms as they gather nectar. The vid makes him (her?) appear quite large, but they are actually smaller than, say, the average dragonfly. Frank
Butterflies are pretty creatures and it's sad to say that my husband hates butterflies. It makes its nest on the lemon and lime plants that when not noticed, the eggs would hatch into caterpillars that would ravage the young leaves of the plants. The butterflies do that every time whether it is rainy season or not, they have the penchant to build their nest in the lime and lemon plants. We still wonder why. We have to check the lime and lemon plants everyday for a budding nest of butterflies. I almost forget, moths are also in the same vein, they make the nest and come up with smaller caterpillars doing the same destruction to the plants. PS. But we don't harm the butterflies. We just let them do their thing and spray the plants with the garden hose to remove any vestiges of the butterfly's nest.
We have thousands of butterflies here and I have the children kill as many as possible because a short time after we have million caterpillars. I don’t want to use insecticides just don’t like them. My wife was taken to the butterfly museum in Toronto and she told my niece we have more at home. It was in her trip to Toronto but the museum was in Niagra Falls
I didn't realize they were so disliked til I started looking at some images of them. Some I can't even post on here But I guess they must symbolize something else too besides what we've grown up learning as children. I also didn't know they ate disgusting things til I started researching them.