DanielePralong

What a great series Debbie! I'm glad you got an ID, and congratulations on your nomination! A comment regarding your notes: Clusia is not the only genus of plants capable of absorbing carbon dioxide during the night. This phenomenon, known as CAM for Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, or CAM photosynthesis, was discovered in the family Crassulaceae, also known as the stonecrop family. All plants in this family possess CAM. It is also found in other groups of plants. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crassulace...

Congratulations Jonathan! On the PN Facebook post someone is asking a question similar to mine below regarding the dragonfly drinking from the eyes. You want want to check it out. Here's a link to the post:
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...

Thanks for your reply Jonathan!

Great catch Jonathan! Do you happen to know whether dragonflies drink from reptile tears, as butterflies do?

You've been to some quite remote place Greg! I always love seeing your squirrels.

Malcolm, are you sure the long thin leaves belong to the hosta plant and not to some vegetation in the background?

Thank you!

You're welcome! Somehow one of my links below got truncated. Here it is again:
http://www.eurobutterflies.com/sp/pandor...
I would suggest to leave the images of your choice here as part of this current spotting so that this comment exchange is preserved for educational purposes.

Hi Zlatan! Argynnis pandora has a distinctive grey-green sheen on top of the orange on the upperside, which can't be seen here. I also think that you're too far north with respect to distribution. In very nearby Switzerland for instance this species is only found in a few discreet sites in Valais. For more images, criteria and information on A. pandora: http://www.eurobutterflies.com/sp/pandor....... You may want to create two additional separate spottings for these images. If you look carefully at the uppersides on images 1+2 and 3+4 you'll see differences. The individual in 3+4 shows two rows of relatively round dark spots along the edges, whereas 1+2 has a row of round spots and a row of chevrons. Based on this criteria, plus the absence of scent scales and the green sheen on the underside, I think that 3+4 is a female Argynnis paphia. 1+2, and 5, are likely A. aglaja, addipe or niobe. There a few criteria to distinguish them from the upperside, but the best criteria concern the underside. The following site offers a complete key to butterflies for Switzerland; it should apply to your spotting location: https://lepido.ch. I hope this helps.

Hi Zlatan! The white antenna tips, as well as the clear separation between spots 4 and 5, are criteria for Z. transalpina.
See more specimen here: https://www.lepido.ch/zygenes/zygaena-tr...