www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Winter approaching & all, thought I'd put a few Canadian ( Ontario) pics on from Aug 06...... hope you like them!

1 Summer azure:


2 Easten Tailed Blue






3 Great Spangled Fritillary


4 Meadow Fritillary ( Boloria bellona)




5 Monarch - egg laying on Milkweed


6 Viceroy - a mimic of the above!


7 Northern Crescent - this & the next have only recently been considered separate species.....




8 Pearl Crescent


9 Black Swallowtail


10 (and finally) Wild Indigo Duskywing mating pair

It's great to see these Canadian pictures, and also Dave Mac's pictures from Texas. They make me think I must go to America again one day. I went to New England when I was 14 and photographed some of the same things as you have here, Paul (though not so well as you!!) - including pearl crescent, monarch, viceroy and eastern tailed blue. I still have a black swallowtail I found killed on a road. I also remember pink-edged sulphurs, buckeyes, silver-bordered fritillaries and muskrats (I was staying at a cranberry plantation)!

I especially love the fact these North American insects are so obviously closely related to European species and find it fascinating browsing the field guides. I have the Peterson guide you mention, Paul, and also the National Audubon Society photographic field guide, which is an excellent complement.

Guy

I'm also struck by how similar the members of various butterfly families are, even on widely separated continents. The implication, I guess, is that the various butterfly families evolved before Pangea separated into all the different continents, and that their evolution has been fairly slow since. Does anyone here know anything about butterfly evolution, and what- if anything- they have left in the fossil record? Don't recall ever seeing a butterfly in Amber.

Hi,

yes for the most part I would blame Pangea. I suppose various land bridges existed for eons after, enough for them to have spread much like H. sapiens (without the boats!!). In fact, when I think about it , some obviously did use the boats!!!
Anyway, the similarities, and differences are fascinating.