|
Title: Butterfly in my garden Post by: Aafke on 24-Jul-10, 04:51:09 PM Yesterday I could take a picture of this beautiful butterfly in my garden. In English it's called a European Peacock or Peacock butterfly (Inachis io)
In Dutch we call it dagpauwoog, there is also the name peacock (pauw) in the name. It's only living in Europe and Asia. The base-colour of the wings is a rusty red, and at each wingtip it bears a distinctive, black, blue and yellow eye-spot. The butterfly hibernates over winter before laying its eggs in early spring, in batches of up to 500 at a time. The caterpillars, which are shiny black with six rows of barbed spikes and a series of white dots on each segment, hatch after about a week and feed on nettles and hops. The adult butterflies drink nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants, including buddleia, willows, dandelions, wild marjoram, danewort, hemp agrimony, and clover; they also utilize tree sap and rotten fruit. It's nice for this butterfly that I have a lot of nettles in my garden. This is the only one that I saw this year, I can remember that a few years ago I saw dozens of them on the buddleia. greetings Aafke Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: carla on 24-Jul-10, 05:06:34 PM Beautiful Butterfly,
I cann't remember if I had one in my garden,I do have to watch better. greetings Carla Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: Kris G. on 24-Jul-10, 07:11:17 PM What a beautiful Butterfly to have in your garden, Aafke! Thanks for posting the picture!
Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: gayle on 24-Jul-10, 07:12:10 PM What a spectacular butterfly, Aafke! You have an amazing garden! Thank you for the photograph and description.
Gayle Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: Wing Goose on 24-Jul-10, 07:22:46 PM What a beauty, Aafke. Thank you for sharing something so beautiful !
Lola :thanx: Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: Donna on 24-Jul-10, 07:46:42 PM I have never ever seen one as pretty as that one Aafke. Your so lucky to have them, even rarely. Thank you for sharing that beauty with us.
Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: MAK on 24-Jul-10, 10:49:53 PM :wave: How fabulous to be visited by such a colorful creature! :thanks2: :clap:
Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: Bird Crazy on 30-Jul-10, 09:07:06 PM Wow what an amazing butterfly. Thanks for posting the picture. :clap:
Title: Re: Butterfly in my garden Post by: valhalla on 31-Jul-10, 05:19:23 AM The butterfly hibernates over winter before laying its eggs in early spring, in batches of up to 500 at a time. The caterpillars, which are shiny black with six rows of barbed spikes and a series of white dots on each segment, hatch after about a week and feed on nettles and hops. greetings Aafke A real beauty, Aafke - thanks for sharing :thanx: What I found interesting, is that your butterfly is much like our Monarch butterfly in terms of hibernation and sort of similiar caterpillars. The Monarch (it is the 4th generation of the season) makes a long flight from Canada to Mexico in the autumn to hibernate and it is this 4th generation that lays the eggs to begin the cycle again in the spring. |