10 Most Elusive Butterflies of the World
These are a collection of butterflies that I think have the best designs to them. Some of these act as a disguise to fool predators and make them believe they are something else, rather than a butterfly. They use their wings as an optical illusion.
Owl Butterfly
Image via ejphoto.com
The Owl Butterfly is the most illusive butterfly of them all, their wings actually spread out to form the face of an Owl this warns of predators making them believe that they are in fact an owl. To you or I it would appear as an owl also, the detail that is in these butterflies wings is truly amazing. They resemble an owls face right down to the last detail even the glare off an eyeball.
The Great Southern White
Image via ejphoto.com
The Great Southern White butterfly is not as deciving as the owl but it is just as cunning in its behaviour, because of its colour it can blend in with its surroundings and always lands on white flowers when it nears the ground. As you can see from the photograph it has a dark edge around the top of its top wings, this is to give the effect of an actual flower. These dasiy’s would not be great camouflage but other flowers that they visit they are almost impossiable to see.
MILLISSA BLUE
Image via images.on.ca/JayC/pages/Mellissa_Blue.htm
The Mellissa Blue holds much of the abilities of the Great Southern White as regards camouflage, it has a ring of white around its wings but also on its body where the wings meet. This is to give the illusionary effect that it is also a flower. They tend to travel to flowers that suit their colouring too, you will notice that they have a black ring of colour just inside the white, this is to give the illision that the edges of the flowers bend.
THE OLIVE HAIRSTREAK
Image via images.on.ca/JayC/pages/Olive_Hairstreak.htm
These olive coloured butterflies are in fact the males the females are a red-brown colour. Its sole objective in life is to find a mate and when they do they form an amazing looking flower appearance. This flower appearance is their disguise that allows them mate undisturbed and makes them invisiable to predators.
THE WHITE ADMIRAL
Image via images.on.ca/JayC/pages/White_Admiral.htm
These are a strange butterfly they use the shade unlike other butterflies to get around. They dwell in the wooded areas that provide the shade, and they lay there eggs under honey suckkle leaves. You will find them in high humidity areas in forests. The raising tempreatures in our climate today sees them becoming more common now than they use to be.
TIGER SWALLOW TAIL
Image via images.on.ca/JayC/pages/Tiger_Swallowtail.htm
The Tiger Swallowtail uses its tail to fool its predator, from above they look like a bird dropping and their colours help it to blend into ist surroundings. Not only do they give the appearance of a bird dropping from above but they appear like a snake from underneath warning off groud predators too.
THE ZEBRA SWALLOWTAIL
Image via images.on.ca/JayC/pages/Zebra_Swallowtail.htm
These hold the same abilities as the Tiger Swallowtail only they are found in a different location in the world but these are more convincing as a bird dropping. They are found in Canada, Mexico and the Southern States of America.
HARVESTER BUTTERFLY
Image via images.on.ca/JayC/pages/Harvester2.htm
These butterflies are more diverse in their ability to hide, they match almost any colour in the forest or your garden. If they sit on the ground you would just pass it off as a dead leaf and so would most of its predators too.
TROPICAL LEAF WING
Image via naba.org
These Tropical Leaf Wing butterflies are almost invisiable, they come in different colours to suit the surroundings. This one disguises itself as a leaf in the jungle as to not get detected by passing birds. These butterflies usually tend to visit flowers with a darker colour as not draw unwanted attention to themselves.
TREE NYMPH
Image via harkphoto
The Tree Nymph appears to look like a bird dropping but these have little to worry about because their predators know that these dont taste to good. On their wings because of their diet they have a distasteful toxin on them that leaves a horriable taste in their mouths.
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22 Responses to “10 Most Elusive Butterflies of the World”
On March 11, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Good one steph, its hard to pick any one to vote for..all are so beautiful
On March 11, 2009 at 12:53 pm
My dad collected butterflies and moths when I was a kid so I love this article. The photos are beautiful, I hadn’t heard of a couple of them and didn’t see the Great Southern White at first glance. Thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you.
On March 11, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Beautiful pictures and well narrated facts….
On March 11, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I love butterflies. I don’t see any of these in N.Y. Thank you for the opportunity to see more variety. Now I am really getting spring fever!
On March 11, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I love all your science articles but this one is my favorite. I LOVE butterflies and you’ve shown so beautiful ones here. It’s amazing what masters of disguise they are. Great stuff!
On March 11, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Beautiful butterflies. I’m looking forward to summer when I can see real ones. In the meantime, I can feast my eyes on these lovelies.
On March 11, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Awesome butterfly photos.
On March 11, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Very cool read and the pics were awesome!
On March 11, 2009 at 6:31 pm
kewl!
On March 11, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I love butterflies and it never occured to me how much some of them really look like flowers.
On March 11, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Awesome pictures:)
On March 11, 2009 at 8:50 pm
what a fascinating piece.. nature has really given each creature the ability to conserve their species..
On March 11, 2009 at 8:56 pm
i rarely saw butterflies at the zoo nor any mentioned of their extinctivity..
eye catching butterflies,indeed steph..=)
On March 12, 2009 at 1:12 am
Excellent…cute butterflies.
On March 12, 2009 at 1:29 am
Nice work. Great choice in photos.
On March 12, 2009 at 3:37 am
I like the white one. Great article!
On March 12, 2009 at 7:42 am
Very beautiful!
On March 12, 2009 at 10:38 am
wow… im speechless with their beauty!
On March 15, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Gorgeous!
On March 17, 2009 at 6:20 am
Great article Steve! a beautiful collection of pictures too
On March 22, 2009 at 12:34 am
These butterflies are just gorgeous! Really fantastic!
It’s sad we don’t see nearly as many butterflies as we did when I was young!
Kimberly
On November 4, 2009 at 4:15 pm
This was a lovely article!! …Growing up, we have plenty of the white admiral, and yellow swallowtail butterflies in our yard… The white admirals were my favorite… They didn’t seem to have much fear, they would land on you, or walk off flowers onto our hands…
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