This being Sunday, John Avise is here with some pictures, and remember that he’s moved on to butterflies. John’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
First, I’d like to wish all WEIT readers a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Joyous Coynezaa, or whatever else you may be celebrating during this special season. This week continues the series on butterflies that I’ve photographed in North America. I’m continuing to go down my list of species in alphabetical order by common name.
Bramble Green Hairstreak (Callophrys dumetorum):
Brazilian Skipper (Calpodes ethlius), underwing:
Brown Elfin, Callophrys augustinus:
Cabbage White (Pieris rapae), male:
Cabbage White, female:
Cabbage White, underwing:
California Dogface (Zerene eurydice), male underwing:
JAC: This butterfly was on a stamp:
California Dogface female underwing:
California Dogface, male upperwing:
California Dogface, female upperwing:
California Dogface, larvae on False Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa):
California Hairstreak (Satyrium californica):
California Ringlet (Coenonympha california), dark morph:
California Ringlet, light morph:
California Ringlet, mating pair:
Going back ~15yrs, someone in my old dept studied something in cabbage moths. All I remember is that in mating they expend some huge % of their body mass. Something in the 13-17% range.
An interesting set!
Lovely! Thanks!
The Cabbage White was probably the most common butterfly where I grew up. I didn’t find them interesting, preferring the Monarch, probably because the Cabbage White was, simply, white. But in your photographs they are beautiful! I’m sorry that I ignored them so many years ago.
Indeed, thank you for these gifts!
These are a treat – I particularly like the Brown Elfin – the subdued lighting helps the strong detail…
Beautiful photos, John, thank you.
Thank you, John! The Green Hairstreak has such an unusual oxidized-copper color. The California Dogface is another of my favorites because it’s found only in California and is our state insect…. also, Wikipedia just informed me that False Indigobush “is a larval host to the clouded sulphur, gray hairstreak, hoary edge, Io moth, marine blue, silver-spotted skipper, and southern dogface. The plentiful seeds are a food source for bobwhite quail. Both bees and butterflies use the flowers as a nectar source.” Wow — what a plant!!
Thank you, Susan, for adding all of this fascinating context.
That a jazz solo is extemporaneous is not inconsistent with a lack of free will. Being extemporaneous merely regards when compositional decisions are made – before the performance, not on the spot, as in a composition, or during, extemporaneously, as in an improvisation.
If an improvisation being determined means that the decisions are made before being performed – and how far back shall we consider deterministically; back to the musician’s childhood, even? – then nothing is extemporaneous, and we then lose a concept that usefully distinguishes improvisation from composition.