Common checkered skipper
Click for greater clarity.
Come check this common checkered skipper, Pyrgus communis. The bush is one you’ve seen before, Ageratina havanensis, known as white mistflower, Havana snakeroot, and shrubby boneset. The date was November 13, 2013, and the location was Floral Park Dr. in my Great Hills neighborhood in northwest Austin.
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DID YOU KNOW?
At the bottom of each post is a gray “banner” with information about the post. The most useful part is probably the line headed by the words “Tagged with.” If you click any of the categories given there, you’ll get a scrolling view of all the posts that have been categorized that way (at the bottom of each group you’ll have to click “<<Older Entries” to keep going back). For example, if you click the link for “butterfly,” you’ll be able to see every picture I’ve ever posted of a butterfly. I just tried it and found there were 28 before today; I didn’t realize there had been so many, although it averages out to a little less than one a month.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
Fantastic detail and markings on this beauty
norasphotos4u
January 7, 2014 at 7:00 AM
The checkering drew me in, and then I was intrigued by the fine hairs and subtle bluish color.
Steve Schwartzman
January 7, 2014 at 8:49 AM
I like the fuzzy spot of blue on this little fellow.
Dawn
January 7, 2014 at 7:48 AM
That got to me too, although I didn’t see it initially.
Steve Schwartzman
January 7, 2014 at 8:49 AM
You couldn’t have found a better color match between flower and butterfly – they complement one another beautifully.
I love that we can see its proboscis, probing the flower, and it just tickles me that the antennae are so widely spread. It reminds me of bobbing for apples. Anyone can do it, hanging on to the side of the tub. But the best prizes in childhood contests went to the kid who could do it with their arms spread out behind them. Your butterfly looks like it’s “Bobbing for Nectar”!
shoreacres
January 7, 2014 at 8:20 AM
Now that’s a connection I would never have made: the widespead antennae on this butterfly and the arms of a kid bobbing for apples. I thought the rules require a bobber’s arms to be in the back, but there may be different sets of rules just as there are different species of butterflies.
Steve Schwartzman
January 7, 2014 at 8:53 AM
I clicked ‘macro’ tag. Too many to bother counting. 🙂
Jim in IA
January 7, 2014 at 10:20 AM
Thanks for trying it, and you’re right about macro: the majority of the photographs shown here are the “fruits” of my 100mm macro lens.
Steve Schwartzman
January 7, 2014 at 12:39 PM
Beautiful framing Steve!
Michael Glover
January 7, 2014 at 4:07 PM
Thanks, Michael. I’ve long practiced the art of cropping.
Steve Schwartzman
January 7, 2014 at 4:15 PM
Terrific photo!
montucky
January 7, 2014 at 8:05 PM
Thank you.
Steve Schwartzman
January 7, 2014 at 8:42 PM
very very beautiful.
sedge808
January 9, 2014 at 9:04 AM
Thank you.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2014 at 9:41 AM
I love this beautiful closeup.
artsofmay
January 10, 2014 at 10:37 AM
Thanks for letting me know.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2014 at 10:42 AM
[…] visible in this photograph). Over a year ago I showed a picture of the butterfly known as the common checkered skipper, but this is the first appearance here for the checkered […]
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