The Faithful Wanderer

Our Creator is an Artist

Sometimes it’s just good to stop and admire the beauty of our world. So today, I’ll display a few favorite images of butterflies. There are no deep spiritual truths here; just a gladness that the God who created our delightfully complex natural world designed Heaven too.

*Note: Many of these common names actually refer to several closely related species, which have been clumped together into a single group.

Blue Morpho

• Location: Central and South America and Mexico
• Unusual Feature: One of the largest butterflies in the world. Their wingspan can be up to 20cm (about 8 inches). In contrast, a dollar bill is only 6 inches long.
• Status: Endangered.

These two images show both the top and underside of this butterfly’s wing.

Emerald Swallowtail

• Location: Southeast Asia-Indonesia, Borneo, the Philippines and Myanmar.
• Other Names: Emerald Peacock or Green-banded Peacock Swallowtail
• Unusual Feature: Rarely seen because these butterflies fly in the forest’s upper canopy.
• Status: Endangered.

Glasswing

• Location: The rainforests of Mexico and Central America, as far away as Panama.
• Other Names: ‘Espejitos’ in Spanish. The literal translation is “little mirrors.”
• 1st Unusual Feature: Transparent wings.
• 2nd Unusual Feature: This butterfly lays her eggs on the Nightshade plant, which the hatched caterpillars feed on. Both the caterpillars and adults are toxic to predators.
• Status: Common.

Blue Cracker

• Location: Central and South America, but occasionally spotted in the southern United States.
• 1st Unusual Feature: Males of several species can produce a cracking sound when taking off. Some have compared it to the sound of bacon frying and crackling.
• 2nd Unusual Feature: These butterflies always face downwards when basking in the sun. They are most often found in this position high up on tree trunks.
• 3rd Unusual Feature: The adult butterflies feed mostly on decomposing fruit.
• Status: Common?

Owl Butterfly

• Location: Mexico, Central America and down into the Amazon River basin in South America.
• 1st Unusual Feature: These butterflies are nocturnal or active at night. They often clump together to sleep during the day.
• 2nd Unusual Feature: They have huge eyespots on their wings, which look like an owl’s eye.
• 3rd Unusual Feature: These butterflies like to drink the juices of fermenting fruits.
• Status: Common.

Monarch

• Location: North America and Mexico
• Unusual Feature: Because these butterflies cannot survive cold weather, the eastern species migrates to the oyamel fir forests in Mexico to spend the winter–a journey of up to 2000 miles. Upon arriving, thousands of Monarch butterflies will cluster together in a single tree to stay warm.
• Status: Common

Resources:

In North Carolina, at the Durham Museum of Life and Science, the staff have set up a ‘caterpillar munch cam’ where you can hear and watch the highly magnified head of a caterpillar feeding on a leaf. It’s located in the Magic Wings Butterfly House. So, if you’re ever in North Carolina…

Read more about the Glasswing Butterfly.

Watch this video of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly.