Aug. 8, 2010 - Exotic Butterflies - Como Park

From June 18 through September 6, 2010 the Como Park Conservatory, located in St. Paul, MN, hosted a butterfly exhibit. They set up a temporary, 2500 square foot greenhouse decorated to look like a caterpillar. Inside this greenhouse were tropical plants and hundreds of butterflies from all over the world. This is a Blue Clipper.

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This is an Owl Butterfly, probably named for the big “eye spot” on the hind wing.

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The exhibit brochure had photos and names of a few of the species. However, there were over 100 species in the greenhouse so I am still working on identifying many of the photos that I took, including this one.

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Here’s another unidentified butterfly. Note the beautiful flowers which gave a really spectacular background for photos.

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Here’s another beautiful, but unidentified, butterfly. If any of you recognize these insects please e-mail me and I will update the photos with the correct names. (Thanks to Tom Ramsey who identified this as a Malay Lacewing.)

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I really like the way the colors in this butterfly match the color of the flower.

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This is an Atlas Moth. I’ve read that it’s the largest moth in the world. When I entered the exhibit, the attendant said one of these moths was just emerging and would shortly be on exhibit. Note that the upper wings haven’t completely unfolded yet.

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The butterflies were free-flying and they treated people as just another place to land. This Blue Morpho chose to land on the shirt of a volunteer. I know you can’t see any blue but it’s not misnamed because the upper surface of the wings is a brilliant blue. I’m sure the brown color with all the spots provides great camouflage. Photographers at the exhibit were frustrated at trying to get a photo of the blue upper wing. As soon as a Blue Morph would land, it would fold its wings. I finally got one shot with the blue showing. To see it, and the rest of the photos I took at the exhibit, click on this link.

http://www.earlorfphotos.com/Here-are-my-newest-photos-and/Exotic-Butterflies-Como-Park/13195651_u4FiG#957746117_6Ya54

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