Saturday, September 26, 2009

There is magic outside my office window

I've had an ongoing battle with the caterpillars and the passion vine that grows up over my office window, and stretches out along a piece of twine over to the bird feeder. Recently I've been losing the battle to the persistent butterflies who deposit their eggs on the leaves of the vine. The eggs turn into hungry little caterpillars which then form a Chrysalis and meta-morph into beautiful butterflies- all of this right outside my office window, distracting me from work. :) I recently looked out and saw an unusual sight- what appeared to be two brand new butterflies intertwined as though they had both just come out of a single Chrysalis. In researching this a bit- it doesn't appear possible, so this may have been a male attracted to a newly emerged female, or perhaps two newly emerged butterflies that came together. I could see the wings of one were still wet, and the other didn't seem to have unfolded hers yet. As I watched one of them unfolded its wings and began the steady flapping to dry them. Soon both were gone. Anyway, enjoy the pictures...click on them to really see the details.







Pretty cool huh? This is the reason I put up with the little buggers..even though they have mostly stripped the vine that once was lush and shaded my window. The portion of the vine that grows out over the twine is still mostly unaffected. I squish quite a few of them, and spray them off with the hose, but I don't use chemicals, and we both go on to fight a new battle..and I keep being amazed by the view.

4 comments:

Alexandra MacVean said...

How incredible!!! Wow! :) Wish that were my window. hee

Claude said...

It is a constant question... do I like the butterflies or the passionflowers... which is more important?

This year in my yard the butterflies won, next year it will be the passionflowers. They're just gonna have to take turns.

Julie said...

Oh gosh...this is sad! The passionvine is the host plant for the butterflies...I am such a softie, I wouldn't be able to kill them. I know the vine is so beautiful....good luck with it all...

Nishant said...

How incredible!!! Wow! :) Wish that were my window.

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