Orange Sulfer, back, powerlines
Orange Sulphur - Colias eurytheme - Not sure how we got ahold of this specimens. Perhaps bycatch, but the detail in the scales is always lovely in the leps. We usually obsess over the bees here at the lab, but...if you think about it, butterflies present another biodiverse, rich, group of insects that are dependent on a rich, biodiverse flora. They use the nectar (thieve it up really), don't provide much pollination for the plants (on average), need many of the same plants or even the grasses as food sources for the larvae and would also disappear without those plants or, if we continue lawnifying the earth we are think we "own" and pat ourselves on the back for keeping the parks, streets, and neighborhoods all tidy. Our sins are there to witness in acres of lawn.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr