Someone called it common. Duh!
Hours of research proved it uncommon. Difficult to fully identify. But with so many uncommon opportunities to photograph and video up closely, the uncommon Angelkeep butterfly proved to be a red-spotted purple butterfly. Or so it was commonly believed at Angelkeep from comparing photos online.
Angelkeep did not name this butterfly. For one thing, with years of experience in color use, and an art degree to back it, there was not an ounce of any common hue of purple on this butterfly.
First thought to be a swallowtail of the spicebush variety, or perhaps eastern black swallowtail, the question arose as to why it did not have a swallow-tail-like wing appendage. And the details on the lower edges of hind wings held triple the moon-shaped spots, commonly being only one for a common swallowtail.
Another common factor for swallowtails came in the form of rows of white dots on the abdomen. This beauty-on-wings had light yellow horizontal stripes, zero dots, on its abdomen. Where’s there a brilliant butterfly specialist when needed, like Gene Stratton Porter? But she was truly noted for moths of the Limberlost, not butterflies. But likely Gene had more common knowledge on butterflies than Angelkeep will ever come near to duplicating.
A description from butterflyidentification.com reads: “when the wings of the red-spotted purple are open, they show an iridescent bluish base with dark lines all over the wings, along with light blue, black, white and orange spots forming borders. When closed, they show a lighter shade of blue, while the basal area is studded with a row of red sub-marginal spots and marginal blue spots.”
The spot-on description, as well as an accompanying set of photos, fully matched Angelkeep’s uncommon supply of photos. Angelkeep noted that the science writer failed to mention a single shade of purple on the butterfly which carried the color name as a surname.
Another confirming website, onnaturemagazine.com, displayed photos that could have been overlaid on Angelkeep’s pictures for personification match perfection. It’s not common for Angelkeep’s pics to match so perfectly to internet sources. This website described the upper wings as black, with iridescent purplish-blue on the outer portion of hind wings. It seemed the writer was trying to justify the purple name. Based on years of B.S.U. and U.S.F. art studio classes, ON Nature photos, like Angelkeep’s pics, showed zero purple, no violet, not even a true blue violet. Just a myriad of shade and tints of blue.
Both websites agreed this butterfly served as a natural mimic of another, the white admiral, which was protected because the red-spotted purple tasted foul, as compared to its counterpart. This arrangement in the butterfly world also works for the monarch, and its delicious look-alike mimetic viceroy.
The most uncommon part of Angelkeep’s dazzling butterfly mistaken as a swallowtail, was the opportunity to intermingle for so long a time. A certain person, name remaining undisclosed, had been seen in the past with camera extended at the ready chasing a swallowtail for the slightest moment when it might land on a flower or branch for a portrait. “Stumbling buffoon in purple welts” could accurately describe the Angelkeep butterfly paparazzist, after a tumble or two. This red-spotted purple butterfly seemed to beg to be in pictures.
Historically it proved more common to get good butterfly pictures during the two or three years when three large butterfly bushes grew in three colors at the west end of Angelkeep’s patio. If you like butterflies, grow butterfly bushes. They really work. If you love monarchs, grow weeds, milkweeds to be exact. If you like cabbage moths, keep in mind it’s the earliest moth seen every year at Angelkeep, and the closest cabbage to Angelkeep rests on the produce shelf at the grocery.
So many new questions appeared following red-spotted purple’s visit. I wish I had thought to ask at the time. Had its ancestors visited before? If so, were they chased by Angelkeep paparazzi with a Nikon aimed at their heart? What can I plant to make sure it returns? One website mentioned the adult diet of flower nectar, with adult lifespan of 6-14 days.
What an uncommon treat for Angelkeep’s Limenitis arthemis to have spent so much of its short life posing before a camera.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
