Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Melanie's super awesome butterfly hike!, 0 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Hi everyone! I didn't want to take over the daily thread so I figured I better make my own. I must have a lot of good karma stored up because I had the most awesome hike today! I haven't been in a while since it's been deathly hot outside, but since it's in the upper 80s instead of 90s now, I figured I could take it, LOL!

The place I hike is the headwaters to Brooker Creek. The preserve is so big that you can see a lot of different ecosystems: pine scrub, wetlands, etc. It also has lots of pawpaws growing in it, so I go there to see the Zebra Swallowtails.

I had just stepped out of the car and was slathering bug spray on myself when I saw a couple of butterflies. The first was a Palamedes ST that flew off. At first, I thought the other one was a Gulf Fritillary, but it looked too dark.

I got a little closer, thought it was a Queen, and then realized it was a Viceroy! In Florida, we get darker-colored Viceroys that mimic the Queen. But you can tell them apart because they still have that curved line through their hind wings.