Wow! That’s amazing! 🦋

Such an interesting species! 🐛

Thank you so much for the explanation Phil! I had the same question about how the subspecies worked and now I know the answer :)

Such beautiful photographs! The butterfly and the moth are awesome!😄

Thank you so much for answering Phil! That explains why the Apaturi iris and the Apaturi ilia have similar scale structures, like the article describes. I find it incredibly beautiful and exciting how moths and butterflies are so detailed that they far exceed what we can see with the naked eye. Even though their lifespans may be short and their bodies rather small, there is so much more to them!😊 🦋

Wow so interesting! Thank you very much for the article. It helped me to understand more about this amazing species! I especially liked seeing the microscopic structure of their wings. Does every single butterfly species have a different microscopic structure?

The article is amazing! Thank you so much Rachel! It’s interesting how the larval host plant of the Pioneer Caper White/Brown-veined White butterflies in the Kgalagadi region is the Shepherd’s Tree (Boscia Albitrunca). I never knew about that before. Whenever I pass that tree in the region, I’m probably going to be looking at it for caterpillars now!😄

I’m so glad it that you found the post with all of its information about this moth species interesting and inspirational too! I actually found out about this caterpillar and moth species while I was l while researching about something that was inspired by your “The lifecycle of a Spurge Hawkmoth” post. I found the video there so interesting that I started researching about it and it led me to finding out about this Hawkmoth! So without your post I wouldn’t have found out about this so thank you very much! Curiosity about nature is very contagious😄 I totally agree with you. Not only is nature amazing, but it is still such a gigantic mystery to us. There is so much we have yet to discover and I find that fact so exciting!

Here is another website you can visit that also talks about these caterpillars if you’re interested! :)

@Phil Morland Nice! Thank you!

@Phil Morland Thank you so much for answering my questions! And thank you for the amount of effort you put into answering questions from us! Your answer helped me to understand the wings of iridescent butterflies and moths, like the Purple Emperor. The links were very helpful, especially the Madagascan Sunset Moth article! 🦋 Could you also please teach me how to turn a link into words on this website? Like how you made “Madagascan Sunset Moth” into a link to the webpage. I haven’t figured it out yet😅 Hope you having a great day!😄

@Rachel S @Phil Morland Yes. Definitely mind blowing! 🤯

Thank you so much for all questions the answers! It helped me learn a lot of new information about butterflies! The name theory for the word butterfly is really interesting. I never knew or thought of that it way before. 🤔 It also lead me to researching about the amazing Purple Emporer butterfly! I wouldn’t have thought that they were such big butterflies with such a large wingspan after seeing a photograph. And I also found it interesting that their diet comes does not come from flowers and that they prefer to stay in tree canopies. I hope that if I ever visit the UK I am able to see one!😄 Researching about it also led me to some questions about the butterfly, if you would please answer: Why is it that some of the male butterflies have less purple pigmentation than others? For example in this picture of the male from the Apatira iris Wikipedia page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Purple_emperor_(Apatura_iris)_male.jpg the male has only one wing with purple pigmentation. And I searched for other Purple Emperor images and there were males with less pigmentation than others as well. Does how much purple pigmentation a male butterfly has depend on its diet? If so what diet makes the butterfly have more pigmentation and what diet makes it have less pigmentation? Does it depend on the area of UK it resides in? Why is the female of the Purple Emperor species larger than the male? Is it because of the size of the eggs they lay? Why do you sometimes get species with larger females in butterflies in general? Where would be the best place to find a Purple Emperor butterfly in the UK today? (This question is also for future reference if I ever go to the UK haha) Have you ever seen one while living in the UK? Thank you so much if you answer my questions! I’m sorry that I ended up asking so many questions, I’m just really excited about this butterfly species :) Here is the Wikipedia page of the Apatura iris species if anyone is interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatura_iris

Ok. thank you!

Thank you so much for your advice on how you approach butterfly gardens, it really helped answer my questions! I definitely have to look into the seeds and how they affect the wildlife and my dogs. (Also to double check GM stands for genetical modified right?) Thank you for also providing a link to a helpful article! It was so interesting and helpful to know about plants that would work well in my area! I am even more excited to try growing a butterfly garden now! 😄

Hello! Watching butterflies and observing their lives is one of the most relaxing and interesting things in the world! I completely agree with you on that!🦋😄 I have some questions: I recently brought sunflower seeds in a small package from the nursery and at the back it had text informing you that the seeds after the sunflowers have grown should not be consumed by people as the plant has been modified to be more efficient as a garden plant. If most garden plants are modified, would it have any harmful effect on the butterflies and other animals (like my pet dogs) if a human could not even consume it? Is it better to go and find seeds that are more organic? Your butterfly garden looks beautiful! Is it better to plant indigenous plants that you would naturally get in your area and climate compared to exotic plants and hybrids that you can get? Do hybrid plants affect butteflies differently compared to the naturally occurring plant? What type of plants would you be looking for if you were to create a successful butterfly garden? I’m new to all of this, so I’m not sure how to create the best butterfly garden. So thank you so much for any help!😊 God bless!