Butterflies, Flowers and African Statues

The husband and I made it out to Powell Gardens this past weekend for their Butterfly festival.

The star of their butterfly show is the Blue Morpho, of which there are a couple different kinds, but I think what we saw were the Morpho Peleides, and I'm afraid my pictures don't do them justice. They are quite large, typically from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my little finger if I spread out my hand. Our speciman was a bit washed out, partially because of how humid and slightly foggy it was in the room.



Here is the underside of the Blue Morpho's wings, can you believe that's the same animal?!



Here are some of my other favorites:

A Luna Moth, which I think are just the neatest looking, with big fat fuzzy white bodies, they almost look like they have fur. I was a little creeped out by the fact that once they emerge, they don't have mouths, since they don't eat and only live about a week for the sole purpose of mating. I feel kind of sorry for them!



This next one is some kind of swallowtail butterfly, there are many different kinds of them.



The White Peacock Butterfly



And I have no idea what this one was, but just thought the picture came out REALLY well! I think I have a future as a photographer, don't you? (carefully avoids mention of how many out of focus pictures were deleted! Ah, the wonders of digital cameras!) Okay, having just read the next section of my own post and my link to wiki, I've realized this one is a male Monarch butterfly! I just didn't think he was that big and dark enough to be one, but I guess what we typically think of as very black edgings around orange sections is the female! Look at the wiki pictures and you'll see what I mean. ;)



There was also a Monarch Butterfly tent where there were many displays all about that most famous of butterflies. Monarch tagging is quite the event! I had heard of bird tagging, and other larger animals, but butterflies?! I took this short video of the main butterful conservatory room they had, so you can sort of get an idea of how many were in one room, it's not too good, but I think you can get the idea!



Oh yes, and of course there were flowers, it is a garden after all! ;)







And some other critters that were luckily off the path!



And also some stone statues from Zimbabwe. The exhibit was called Chapungu and apparently each piece represents a story of the Shona people. Here are a few that I liked:





Whew! It was quite a trip, but well worth it! Every year we visit out there it's just getting bigger and better!