The guy behind the lens

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Nature's Rock Candy!

As I was going through my images from earlier this summer from the butterfly garden at the Texas Discovery Gardens in Dallas, I noticed something I missed before. Initially I liked this image of a Tiger Longwing butterfly because of how it was perched "stilt legged" on this leaf.


Upon closer inspection, I noticed the proboscis looked "funny" and saw it was covered in sugar crystals! Given that this species of butterfly likes passion vines with deep, tubular flowers, it seems sensible that the proboscis would get a bit of sugar on it. In this case the nectar dried and the sugar crystals formed - in essence unintended rock candy!


14 comments:

Tatjana Parkacheva said...

Wonderful macro photographs.

Regards and best wishes

Kerri Farley said...

Oh, how cool is that? What a neat find!
Beautiful capture my friend!!

eileeninmd said...

Awesome shots of the butterflies. Great macro shots.

Kay L. Davies said...

I wonder if the butterfly would be alright after that?
Great photos, though, John. Beautiful.
— K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

Cheryl said...

That's really quite amazing. I've got to go up to the animal park soon to capture some butterfly shots before they close for the season. Would love to see something like this up close in person.

Love for Food and Photography said...

Your Nature portraits are wonderful! I also like photographing the nature and landscapes of my Country, animals and food.
hallo from Switzerland!

Tina´s PicStory said...

Great shots :)

Iowa Gardening Woman said...

How interesting! One has to really look at the photos to take it all in or something is missed.

Unknown said...

A "sweet" shot of a butterfly. Thanks for visiting my blog. Many years ago I taught 7th and 8th grade science. I have been enjoying your blog for some time.

Anonymous said...

Marvellous shots - so clear!

Al said...

Great shot - I've never seen anything like this before.

Lisa said...

Wow. Fantastic detail and images. Brilliant

Anonymous said...

Wonderfully sharp details. Happy MM

Julie G. said...

Simply beautiful images! So very intersting about the sugar crystals. Great post!