No I'm not talking about a style of music, feeling depressed or the New South Wales rugby team!
Yes, its butterflies I'm thinking about!…again!
…and therefore, our Awesome Creator!
'The Blues' is what a range of small butterflies is 'commonly' called because most of them have a distinct bit of blue-tone somewhere on them, to be seen when their wings are open, even though they are often a brown tone on the underside.
Wikipedia says:
Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide,[1] whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfly species. The family is traditionally divided into the subfamilies of the blues (Polyommatinae), the coppers (Lycaeninae), the hairstreaks (Theclinae) and the harvesters (Miletinae).
And they are really tiny - in part 2 of this blog, you will see a size comparison with my wedding ring!
It's only with zoom photography and the ability to enlarge a photo that you are able to see the extent of the beauty that is there.
Over the last few weeks I haven't really seen any of them in our garden. Maybe its to do with the season changes. I don't really know.
But it seems a good time to be reminded of these beautiful tiny butterflies and share them with you too!
First up - The African Grass Blue
The Grass Jewel
The Rayed Blue
Bush Bronze - female
And the Common Hairtail - female
Then there is the 'Zebra Blue',
…which I will reveal in Part 2 of this post…
Are these all to be seen near where you are living?
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