Monday, October 27, 2008

What's That Bug?

When Monday rolls around and you're in a post-weekend daze, you post some pretty gardening photos and call it a day.
Yesterday I was in the garden looking at my very stunted sunflowers when I noticed a black and blue butterfly darting around the garden. I came inside and decided to look up what kind of butterfly he was since I'd never seen a black and blue one before. I had tons of things to do on Sunday afternoon but spent entirely too much time searching for this butterfly online. I very easily obsess over things and searching for what type of butterfly I had just seen completely overtook me.
It turns out that it's hard to look up what kind of bug you've got if you don't have a clue where to start. I spent entirely too long searching for "blue black butterfly Florida" and the like with no answers.
It was then I decided to go to What's That Bug? for help. My friend Courtney has a daughter named Caity who's got a thing for bugs and I learned about the website from them. I searched the site and found nothing, so I decided to email them for help on the Ask What's That Bug page. You fill out information on your bug and where you saw it, then upload some pics and ask the experts.
Within an hour on a Sunday afternoon I got an email back from What's That Bug telling me that this butterfly is a Pipervine Swallowtail. I'm impressed and a little freaked out that someone was sitting by the What's That Bug? computer on a Sunday afternoon knocking out replies, but it worked out in my favor. So gardeners, if you have a creepy-crawly and you can't figure out what it is, What's That Bug? is the place to go. It turns out that the Pipervine Swallowtail is one of 10 species of swallowtail butterflies to be found in Florida. Anti-climactic as all get out huh? But at least I know what it is and I can focus on a new obsession for today.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

your butterfly is lovely..you did great research on it. Don't remember you doing that much research in school!!!
mum

Anonymous said...

amazing pics, kate! you're so talented!

Anonymous said...

Well....it sure did make for some pretty pictures. Good job! I take pictures of spiders and stuff when i'm bored, yeah - that's kinda weird!

EG

Kate and Crew said...

Thanks all!!

EG - I'm not a fan of spiders so we'll be spider-photo-free around here. I only get up close and personal with the friendly, happy, girly bugs - LOL.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin