Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Lepidoptera

A couple of weeks ago I opened the door to let the dogs out for their morning business and saw something on the door out of the corner of my eye. Turning to look, I nearly fell over! This moth is about 2" long, what a monster! I was really excited because I instantly recognized it as a Hawk Moth, sometimes called a Hummingbird Moth because it can hover in midair like a hummingbird and is also a nectar feeder. Moths in this group also have the longest proboscis (tongues) in the world (Morgan's Sphinx Moth holds the record at 1 foot long). It was so wonderful to get a nice picture of this beauty! Note: My apologies for being so slow to put up new pictures, I've been working on my book! If you would like read more about these moths, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: White-Lined Hawk Moth For more informations on this fascinating family of moths, visit this Wiki page: Wiki: Hawk Moths Explored on ipernity on April 7, 2014. Highest placement, #2.

[best appreciated at full size against black] I am really excited about butterflies and every time I see one, I hope against hope that it will land close enough for me to take its picture. I've been having some great luck with my new camera, and I got some more the other day! I was up on our ridge line and noticed several swallowtail butterflies flying around the manzanita blossoms, and eventually one of them landed close enough for me to take some pictures! I wasn't able to get very close, but when I looked at this picture on my computer, I exclaimed, "HEY! This looks like the kind of picture Shannon would take! YAY!!!" I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! Janet's profile (sfhipchick) This image was taken in March, 2012.

Another picture from the butterfly exhibit at the Jackson County Fair! I think it's holding feet up in front of its face but I'm not really sure...can anyone tell me? Painted Lady butterflies are in a group ("order") called Lepidoptera, which includes butterflies and moths. They can be found all over the world, except for Antarctica and in very dry deserts. There are currently 174,250 species named, with more discovered every year. Butterflies are an extremely successful insect and have been on this planet for millions of years; the oldest fossil was found in Dorset, UK, dating back 190 million years ago! Butterflies in their winged form have an average lifespan of only one or two weeks, but some generations of certain migratory butterflies, such as Monarchs, can live as long as eight months! If you would like to know more about butterflies, Wiki has a very nice page here: Wiki: Butterfly and here: Wiki: Lepidoptera