This beauty was beating itself against a plastic barrier and I managed to catch it and (try to) release it. It seemed to find perching on my finger restful and stayed there for quite a long time. When I finally got it to take off, it circled back and landed on me again. It did, finally, flutter off on its appointed rounds, but I enjoyed the opportunity to get a really good look at it.
I wonder how this species ended up bearing the name "Red-spotted Purple". The particular specimen pictured here, at least, was orange-spotted and the most striking color was blue. I'm not a scientist, though, so I merely wonder whether someone might have been a little bit color blind. Maybe me. Who knows?
I also looked up information about the caterpillars of this species of butterfly. It turns out that it disguises itself from predators by looking like bird droppings. I went searching for images and, sure enough, it looks a lot like that. Pretty clever! Don't you just love nature?
Happily, they didn't name it the Bird Poop Butterfly. That would have been bad.
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