Summer Grace #1
by Darren Fisher
Title
Summer Grace #1
Artist
Darren Fisher
Medium
Photograph - Photography/ Digital Art
Description
A beautiful Swallow Tail butterfly feeding on a butterfly bush. I have added a texture to give the image a painterly look.
Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, which includes over 550 species.[1] Though the majority are tropical, members of the family occur on every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the largest butterflies in the world, the birdwing butterflies of the genus Ornithoptera.[2]
Swallowtails have a number of characteristic features; for example, on the prothorax a Papilionid caterpillar bears a repugnatorial organ called the osmeterium. The osmeterium normally is hidden, but when threatened, the larva everts it through a transverse dorsal groove[3] by inflating it with blood. It is a fleshy, forked structure and emits smelly secretions containing terpenes, which the larva typically tries to smear onto any attacker touching it.
The adults of some species have conspicuous posteriad prolongations of the hind wings in the region of the M3 vein. The forked appearance of these features as seen in the butterfly when resting with its wings spread, gave rise to the common name swallowtail. As for the formal name, Linnaeus chose Papilio for the type genus, Papilio being the Latin for a butterfly. For the specific epithets of the genus, Linnaeus applied the names of Greek heroes to the swallowtails. The type species: Papilio machaon honoured Machaon, one of the sons of Asclepius, mentioned in the Iliad.
Uploaded
July 30th, 2013
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Comments (13)
Randy Rosenberger
It is an honor and a privilege as an administrator of one of the top groups on FAA, our Wisconsin Flowers and Scenery group, to promote and highlight your awesome artworks on our homepage in one of the prestigious positions, on our group Featuring HOMEPAGE! Your artworks show your love of what you do, and is refined to where we not only accept and promote your fine works, but welcome that opportunity. It is a pleasure to have you as a member of our family of friends and fine artists in the WFS group. Thanks for sharing! Liked Forever, Elvis