Doris Longwing Butterfly 2019

Karen Adams

#437 of 2694

Doris Longwing Butterfly 2019 Photograph

Karen Adams

Delaware, OH

$0.65

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Title

Doris Longwing Butterfly 2019

Artist

Karen Adams

Medium

Photograph - Fine Art Digital Prints - Photography

Description

A lovely little Doris Longwing butterfly enjoys a moment on yellow Lantana flowers. These little guys pack a bunch of beauty!

Such a strikingly beautiful butterfly; a Doris Longwing. Doris was the name of a sea nymph in Greek mythology. . . but the scientific name for this beauty is a Heliconius Laparus doris butterfly.

The Heliconius Laparus doris butterfly is one of the strongest butterflies in the Amazon region. They can live up to 9 months. Normally, neotropical butterflies only live a couple weeks so this is an extremely long time. How they do this has to do with a charactersitic no other butterfly but the Heliconius have and this is the their ability to digest pollen externally while it's on the proboscis.

Another reason for their longevity is the Heliconius Laparus Doris Longwing belongs to a group in the Heliconiini tribe of butterflies that has a closed discal cell on the hindwings. This characteristic is tied to unpalatable Heliconiini butterflies. Palatability and unpalatibility effects the flight style and patterns of the butterfly. Since this butterfly belongs to the unpalatable, closed discal cell on the hindwing group, their flight patterns are slow and smooth, since they have no worries of being eaten. That seems like a very good thing to me!

This was taken at the Franklin Park Conservatory on Sept 11, 2019, at their annual exhibit called Butterflies and Blooms. It is such a wonderful way to send time (although hot!) in a Greenhouse filled with wonderful plants and butterflies everywhere! The delight in children's faces AND grown-up's never fails to bring me joy!

I really appreciate you taking time to look at my artwork. Thank you so much!

I am very concerned with our environment and have decided to donate any money I make from any sales of this image to the ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND.....because the Earth needs a good lawyer! We all need to speak up and support efforts to protect our environment. We will not get a second chance!

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