The Blue Morpho is an international icon for butterflies. It's
iridescent upperside of shimmering blues is of unparallelled beauty.
Blue will be the first colour of this new series that will showcase
the rainbow that butterflies display. While Singapore does not
have any morphos, we do actually have plenty of blue butterflies
that are just as spectacular. It's a common colour on the uppersides
of many lycaenidae (aptly named the Blues) and swallowtails.
Blue is often a hue associated with confidence and harmony but
in an artist's palate it usually defines depth. Being such a striking
colour, butterflies with blue often hide it on their uppersides
to prevent being obvious to predators.
(Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
Common Hedge Blue, Fluffy Tit, Common Mime, Pea Blue, Striped Blue Crow,
Blue Jay, Blue Pansy, Blue Glassy Tiger, Common Tit
Posts
Lovely selection of blue butterflies. I can only name one! The Blue Pansy? Another looks quite like your Bluebottle picture, but it must be a similar species.
ReplyDeleteNick, I've added the names at the bottom of the post now. Should've done that earlier!! Blue Pansy is correct, and the one that resembles the bluebottle is the Blue Jay. Both are from the same genus, graphium. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonny! You have done well to get some open-wing shots of some of those. The Pea Blue must have almost as big a range as the Painted Lady. It seems to occur almost everywhere!
ReplyDeleteThe pea blue does have an almost worldwide distribution. I believe it's known as the long tailed blue in Europe? The name 'long tailed' can't apply in Asia and Africa - we've got species with tails ten times longer!!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's called the Long-tailed Blue over here, but it's tail doesn't appear to be any longer than that of Lang's Short-tailed Blue!! There was great excitement in the south of England last summer as quite a number of Long-tailed Blues made it over the channel from the continent. Sadly the autumn weather was rather cold so they didn't make their way up to Scotland!
ReplyDeleteFantastic assortment of blues - what a great idea for a post. I really love the Tits...I would dearly love to see those!
ReplyDeleteButterflies have such wonderful colours don't they? I believe there is one extant species in China but I'm not sure which one it is.
ReplyDelete