Thursday, September 11, 2008

Out Of Their Element

I saw an interesting butterfly the other day flitting around the Phlox. I didn't pay much attention, other than to gasp, grin and mumble that he was so pretty.


I couldn't get the thought of him out of my brain since this was one I'd never seen before, and I decided to do a little net hunting.

Interesting - it turned out to be a Papilio palamedes! (another one of those times I wish I had a friggin' camera)


Well, very interesting if you consider that for me to see one, he was way out of his range.
Range: Along Atlantic coast from southern New Jersey (rare) to Florida; west and south along Gulf Coast to central Mexico.
Hmmm ... if it's rare to find one in southern New Jersey, what was he doing way up here?
Another sign of GW and everything moving north?
With the way stranger things have been happening in my own yard lately, I'm keeping an open mind on this one.

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3 comments:

Flighty said...

That's a great looking butterfly! Just about the only ones I've seen here have been our common 'cabbage' whites. xx

Tina said...

Hey Flighty,
Yeah, isn't he/she beautiful? I was shocked to find out it wasn't suppoe to be this far north.
Hey, cabbage whites are better than nothing...umm, sometimes...or not!

Flighty said...

I like them but I don't grow cabbages! If I did then I wouldn't be so happy to see them as the caterpillars eat the leaves. xx