Peter Loshin

A very large yellow and black butterfly nectaring on a zinnia flower.

A very large yellow and black swallowtail butterfly, nectaring on a butterfly bush flower.

A better #butterfly week here: fewer wasps and if not way more #butterflies, we got some nice big ones. 1-3 each of Monarchs, black swallowtails, tiger swallowtails, most days -- but today, we got a Giant Swallowtail. Unusual this close to Boston but we've been seeing them every year since 2014.

Dorsal view of Giant Swallowtail butterfly, shows the patterns of yellow stripes: one straight across the back and another looping down along the lower edges of the hind wings. Nectaring on phlox, a purple flower. This is the largest butterfly commonly seen in Massachusetts.

Side view of Giant Swallowtail butterfly, shows the pattern of yellow stripe along the upper side of the left wing, with the ventral view of the right wing mostly yellow with black lines and some blue and orange cells in the hind wing. Nectaring on phlox, a purple flower. This is the largest butterfly commonly seen in Massachusetts.

I misspoke: we've been seeing Giant Swallowtails here since 2012. Here's two photos of one that came by in 2022.

Here's a video of a Giant Swallowtail that came by our garden in 2013: youtu.be/ZhOu2suzV_M

#butterfly #butterflies #insects

A very large yellow and black butterfly nectaring on a zinnia flower.

A very large yellow and black swallowtail butterfly, nectaring on a butterfly bush flower.

A better #butterfly week here: fewer wasps and if not way more #butterflies, we got some nice big ones. 1-3 each of Monarchs, black swallowtails, tiger swallowtails, most days -- but today, we got a Giant Swallowtail. Unusual this close to Boston but we've been seeing them every year since 2014.

Looking vaguely like a bumblebee, the Snowberry Clearwing Moth hovers near a purple flower. Wings are mostly clear, except for dark ribs and edges.

Snowberry Clearwing Moth hovers near a purple flower.

Snowberry Clearwing moths are also sometimes known as "bumblebee moths" because ... they kind of look like bumblebees. Yours looks like a Hummingbird Moth -- which is also awesome!

Snowberry Clearwing caterpillars host on Snowberry plants, btw.

A Common Buckeye butterfly, perched on a wildflower and showing the dorsal view of its wings -- which includes a pair of BIG eyes.

The Common Buckeye #butterfly is one of my favorites, so it's always nice to see a fresh one like this. Once in a while we'll see one in our yard, but more often we can see them at a nearby conservation area.

#commonbuckeye #insects #butterflies #pollinators #ButterflyWeek

Silver-spotted Skipper butterfly hanging from a small blue flower, dipping its proboscis in for some nectar.

A plump Silver-spotted Skipper standing upright on butterfly bush flowers, dipping its proboscis in for a sip of nectar.

Most of the skippers we see around here are small, brownish and nondescript, so it's always a treat to see a #SilverSpottedSkipper: large (for a skipper) and with that white marking that sometimes catches the sun and flashes like silver.

#insects #butterflies #pollinators #ButterflyWeek

Painted Lady butterfly, wings spread to show the upper side which is a pattern of black and white spots and strips layered over an orange base.

Lovely!

It's always surprising to see familiar species that are also seen across the ocean. Red Admiral, but also Painted Lady, European (Essex) Skipper, and others.

Thank you!

This skipper is particularly fluffy, but most #butterflies I photograph seem to be very fuzzy.

Thanks!

I'll keep posting, then.

A Tawny-edged Skipper, a small brown skipper butterfly, standing on a swamp milkweed (I think) leaf.

It's Tuesday of #butterflyweek, but the butterflies have not been exactly flocking around me for the past few weeks.

We did get a new species to our garden recently, number 49: a Tawny-edged Skipper.

Red Admiral butterfly with wings spread and seen from above. Sitting on some green leaves, this butterfly is very fresh. Mostly black wings, with a partial ring of red band around the edges of the wings.

Another view of a fresh Red Admiral butterfly, standing on a leaf with wings up and seen in profile. A little bit of red is visible on the upper wing, but otherwise it looks almost like a paisley pattern on the ventral side of the lower wing.

I've been out of the loop, but here's some #RedAdmiral action for the first day of #butterflyweek (which was yesterday).

Can anyone point me to the schedule for today/rest of the week?

#butterflies

Squash Vine Borer Moth, a moth that looks like a wasp, nectaring on Swamp Milkweed flowers. Wings are transparent except for some black veins.

The Squash Vine Borer #Moth is a cool little wasp mimic AND a glassy-wing day-flying moth. It's a pest if you grow squash, but it's also a neat little pollinator.

Like other glassywings, it hovers mostly and I got lucky with this shot to freeze it, wings fully open, over Swamp #Milkweed flowers.

Light brown skipper butterfly standing on butterfly bush flowers with wings up, showing veined underside with lighter fringe trimming the wing's back edges. The Broad-winged Skipper is larger than most other grass skippers.

A "new for the year" #butterfly in the garden, this Broad-winged Skipper is larger than most other grass skippers. Caterpillars have adapted to host on invasive phragmites grasses, so they are pretty common in some unlikely places. We see one or two most years in our garden.

Small brown skipper butterfly standing on a green leaf.

Northern Broken Dash skippers have been one of the more reliable species to visit our garden this year, but even they have been sparse on the ground: usually just one or two/day.

I would say most #butterflies are plain like this NBD rather than flashy -- but they are still all beautiful.

Snowberry Clearwing moth hovering next to a purple flower, proboscis (tongue) spiraling out toward the nectar. This moth can look (sometimes more than) a little like a bumblebee, and is often known as a "bumblebee moth".

Not a #butterfly but I still love these Snowberry Clearwing aka Bumblebee #moths. I'm getting much better at resetting my shutter speed to "fast" (1/1000th or faster) to catch the detail of the clear wings -- and that fantastic proboscis (tongue) spiraling out to sip nectar while hovering.

A very fresh Red-spotted Purple butterfly resting on a branch as it dries out its wings. You can see the slight curling of the upper and lower corners of the right upper wing.

Yesterday I missed a very fresh Red-Spotted Purple #butterfly -- but I saw *this* one today. One of the more gorgeous #butterflies we can hope to see, this is the second year in a row we've seen at least one near our apple tree -- which is a host plant for the caterpillars.

An American Lady butterfly, perching on a frilly purple and and white flower, sipping nectar.

Spotted this fresh American Lady #butterfly the other day at the next town over. It was very hot that day, but the #butterflies seemed to be fairly active: I saw about a dozen different species at the nearby conservation area.

Small brown skipper butterfly sipping nectar from a frilly flower.

One of the least flamboyant of #butterflies, this Dun Skipper is still quite elegant. A small and plain #butterfly, I love the elegance of its subtle frill along the trailing edges of its wings.

Hummingbird hovering near a bright red Bee Balm flower.

Not many #butterflies here at my home garden, but we usually 1-2 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. After many years of trying, I'm finally getting the hang of photographing them.

Broad-winged Skipper -- triangular and light brown -- nectaring on yellow tansy flower, joined by honeybee.

Light-brown Broad-winged Skipper butterfly, hanging upside down and nectaring on milkweed flowers.

Broad-winged Skipper #butterflies out in force near my house over a former landfill now covered with soccer fields. As many as 6 of these guys were flying on a big unmowed grassy hill.

This #butterfly adapted to host on invasive phragmites grasses, but prefer natives like milkweed for nectaring.

Small skipper butterfly hanging from a small flower, dipping its proboscis for a sip of nectar. Mustard yellow wings without pattern (other than vascular patterns) and a plump white body.

A distinctive skipper with decidedly elegant appearance: mustard-yellow wings, with lighter-colored body shaded to off white at the bottom. The Delaware Skipper #butterfly is easy to differentiate from other similar skipper #butterflies because of it's minimalist look.

Spotted in a nearby town.

A small butterfly, upper wings of orange with black spots and gray trailing edges; lower fings of gray with smaller black spots and orange trailing edge. Standing on a leaf, surrounded by plants.

American Copper #butterfly. The first time I saw one, I was transfixed; I had no idea how common they were. Now that I've seen many many many of them, I still love to get just one more picture of these adorable little (tiny) #butterflies.

The American Lady butterfly stands on a stick next to some small white flowers. Two eyes adorn the trailing edge of the lower wing, and a small bug flies nearby.

I mostly post photos of the more unusual or exotic or uncommon #butterflies I find in my garden or in locations around the state, but I forgot that even the most common #butterfly, like this American Lady, can be breathtaking.

Small brownish-gray butterfly, with some stripes, a blue and orange "eye" at the rear corner of its hindwing and some bits of orange around that, perching on a vine leaf.

Our second hairstreak #butterfly in the garden this year. This Striped Hairstreak, lounging on a vine, gave me just 15 seconds to take its picture before it flew off.

The first Striped Hairstreak we've seen in our garden, it brings us to a total of 48 species of #butterflies here since 2014.

Monarch butterfly posing on the spherical metal top of a garden stake, showing the underside of its wings.

Monarch #butterflies are the divas in our yard. This one landed on a garden stake, gave me ~5 seconds of attitude and flew off.

More often, the Monarchs are mostly nectaring on our liatris (not yet flowering), common milkweed (done flowering) or #butterfly bush.

I really want to know what they are all taking pictures of?

Yes, that's a great looking photo of a great looking viceroy! Such a striking mimic.

A richly colored brown skipper butterfly, nectaring on a button bush flower. Although it is one of the larger grass skippers seen in our region, the Dion Skipper is still quite small. And while, like so many other grass skippers, it's color is "brown", it is a more saturated brown than most. Mostly darker brown, with "flashes" on the hind wing underside that run from the thorax to the far edge of the hindwing: one, along the bottom of the wing, the other through the middle (this one doesn't quite reach the rear edge of the wing). Two lighter dots can be seen on the upper wing; the coloring is quite saturated and when flying it may look the color of shiny copper penny.

Dion Skipper #butterflies have no business nectaring on a button bush near our front porch. They belong in or near wetlands, not our yard.

I'd never seen one before last week-but this was my SECOND sighting: my first was just two days before, ~75 miles west.

#butterfly species #47 for our garden.

Small, dark brown butterfly drinking nectar while hanging from a yellow flower. An ovipositor is visible at the tip of its abdomen.

Small dark brown butterfly standing on a large green leaf.

Duskywings are among the first #butterflies to appear in the spring around here. Earlier in the spring, I could see dozens of Juvenal's Duskywings in this nearby conservation area--and then, none.

Glad to see this Wild Indigo Duskywing #butterfly, last week, the first I've gotten a good look at.

Large dragonfly, clinging with five legs (perhaps the sixth is missing?) to the top of a dried stem. Large, shiny eye, long abdomen and broadly-striped wings held akimbo.

Sometimes, when you're looking for #butterflies, you see #dragonflies. This gorgeous Halloween Pennant followed me down hill yesterday, and kept holding this pose every time I stopped. How could I resist?