Corkscrew Swamp - 10.7.12 - Post 2

The Bugs of Corkscrew Swamp.

I got a start yesterday with some of the bugs I saw, so I figured that I'd wrap up with them first.

Swamp Darner Dragonfly (047 - 2012)

So here's a dragonfly you don't see in Chicago.  It's a Swamp Darner.  And while Chicago was built on a swamp, we definitely don't qualify as one now.  I hate that this shot is backlit.  Normally when I shoot, I get half a dozen frames or so at time to try and get one without shake or in order to try getting the light at a different angle. This is the *only* frame I got of this guy.  So it's clear, but horrible lighting.  Blergh.

Palamedes Swallowtail (048 - 2012)

This is a cool find for me.  It's a Palamedes Swallowtail Butterfly.  It looks a bit like the Giant or even the Tiger's black morph, but there's no blue and no bar across the middle of the wings.  This butterfly has a pretty narrow habitat band going from the Gulf coast areas of Texas around Florida and up to about West Virginia (seasonally, further south more often).  So I won't find these at home!
 

Queen Butterflies (049 - 2012)

These are Queen Butterflies.  We found tons of these guys clustered up at one point of the trail.  Probably fifty of them all together.  And a lot of them were very interested in this dead plant you see in the picture.  These are the three that stayed after we accidentally spooked several more off of it.  I cannot imagine what brought all these butterflies to a dead plant.



Okay!  Three more bugs tomorrow! :)