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Project Noah Nature School
Asterocampa celtis
So many butterflies enjoying the plums! These are actually all different plums. ~~ gatorfellows added that photos 1 and 3 also include Tawny Emperors. Neat!
Spotted on Jun 9, 2013
Submitted on Jun 11, 2013
7 Comments
Cool
gatorfellows, thank you! I thought some of them looked lighter, but just assumed it was the lighting.
Clarification: Photo 1 does have both side by side.
Look carefully and you will see some Tawny Emperors in Photo 1&3. Photo 2 has the Hackberry Emperors. Here is the way to tell. Tawny does not have the eyespot on the apex of the forewing, just white dots: http://bugguide.net/node/view/240886
Hackberry has a single small eyespot near the apex of the forewing, just below a large white spot: http://bugguide.net/node/view/55403
Since both use the hackberry as a host plant, they are often seen together.
Nice find with them nectaring on the fruit. Put out a dish of rotting banana and you will see lots :)
Ryan, they are the most numerous around here! But we have alot of Hackberry trees. There is actually one growing up through the plum tree right now. Lol
That is quite the shot! The Hackberries seem so reclusive down in Florida, to see them in a cluster is an amazing sight!
That's quite a few!