Picture of the Day

Here is a shot of a mimicker. This butterfly has a bright orange spot and what looks like false antennae at the back end of his wings. This is a defense mechanisium. If a preditor tries to grab or bite it near what it thinks is the head it will get some wing scales instead and the butterfly has a chance to get away. Anyway, there where quite a few of these little guys at the gardens the day we took these shots. I was originally trying to get some shots of these latania. There is the orange variaty and the pink variaty, it is a close cousin to the verbenia which is purple. I started to get a closeup of the blooms, they have an interesting petel design, but captured this butterfly, a gray hairstreak. Hope you enjoy the view.