A Praying Mantis working on its tan.
Monday Portrait
Category Archives: Insects
Passion Vine Butterfly on Arrowleaf Sida
A Passion Vine Butterfly feeds on what I think is an Arrowleaf sida (Sida rhombifolia) flower. The plant might be indigenous as it grows in tropical and subtropical areas.
Pretty in pink
This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Pink.’ See more responses here.
The Numbers Game #75
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 196. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Green Darner Dragonfly
I was down in Pololu Valley when I saw several of these dragonflies. I knew they were luring me in with their ‘Come on, we’re just hovering, you’ll get a great photo’ routine. Then they zip around evading every attempt to get them in the camera screen, let alone in focus. But I’m nothing, if not a sucker for that kind of temptation.
Shockingly, this was the second photo I took. Don’t tell the dragonflies. They’ll be very upset.
Hawaiian Crown Flowers
Hawaiian Crown Flowers (Calotropis gigantea) came from India originally, and became popular here because they were favored by Queen Liliuokalani, the last ruler of the Hawaiian monarchy. The purple flower was the one first introduced here, back in the 1880s, with this white variety arriving some 30 years later.
The plant gets its name from the shape of the flowers, which are used in making leis. As members of the milkweed family, they also host Hawaii’s Monarch Butterflies. The plant has a milky sap that is toxic, but that Monarchs, and their caterpillars, are immune to. The caterpillars are voracious eaters, decimating the Crown Flower leaves, but the plant will bounce back after the caterpillars pupate. The plant is drought tolerant and does well on the dry side of the island here.
Incoming
A bee hones in on an Agave Attenuata plant.
The Numbers Game #73
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 194. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Graham's Island 