Approaching the farmers' market. Barberry.
Butterfly on the goldenrod.
The last time I posted a butterfly I didn't know, my brother found it in Google image search -- it was a gray comma.
This time I searched for myself, and the first place I found what I am pretty sure is this butterfly is a shot I believe was taken in a butterfly sanctuary on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea!
Vanessa atalanta is called Red Admiral around here, I guess, and apparently is common in North America, Europe, and Asia's temperate climes.
Now I am seriously wondering -- when did butterflies evolve, and how did they spread all over the world like this? Is it possible that this butterfly species existed at some point when all the Earth's land mass was in one piece? And still persists today?
I am sure that we have FAR fewer butterfly fossils than other sorts of creatures. Things that we still have, after hundreds of millions of years, tend to be robust and relatively hard to damage. Like dino bones. Fragile ephemeral things like butterfly wings -- not so much. Still, I'm sure someone must know........
Or maybe not -- the Wikipedia article on butterfly evolution is sadly bereft of footnotes to corroborating information...........
In any case -- isn't it cool that a butterfly I saw right here in Ann Arbor might have relatives on Elba? Not to mention -- even farther afield?
Gotta love the web, and Google, and Wikipedia. Without them, I'd never have learned this!
Many of the Saturday-morning delights you see on this blog can be acquired via mail order, if you live in the USA. www.zingermans.com
Much later. Walking the dog. I am coming to believe that any way anyone ever depicts clouds is probably a true representation of some clouds seen by someone some time, somewhere.............
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