Butterfly

[beccaelizabeth]

I like the Peacock butterfly. It is British, red, with blue eyes. Caterpillars are spiky, and even the grown ups have little pointed outside bits. It has sneaky camouflage colors with wings closed. Many do, but it's one of the cool things - two butterflies in one.

Wiki is taking over the internet. When I went to look for more information I found mostly pages that were adapted from wiki. And I'm not saying wiki is inevitably wrong, but.

I like how things have so many names. Name magic must get a whole lot complicated. Maybe you need the whole classification as well as a personal name.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Papilionoidea
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Inachis
Species: io

... and there's no knowing what a butterfly personal name is cause we don't speak butterfly ;)

There's places where you can buy butterflies in plastic. I don't like that idea. Butterflies are meant to fly and hide and be surprising.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

Try Butterfly Conservation (http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/butterfly_list/32/a_z_of_butterflies_.html) for reliable information about British butterflies. Click through to the local groups' websites for information on exactly where and when each species can be found locally.

Butterflies matter because they are very sensitive to habitat change, so if the butterflies are doing well it is a sign that other species will also be doing well and the ecology of an area is healthy. Also of course they are very beautiful and many species are just rare enough to be exciting and challenging to find but not so hard as to be impossible. I don't know if you and the countryside mix, but seeing the real thing in the wild is far, far better than seeing them in a display case in a museum.

Of course in Norfolk you have the Swallowtail, not found anywhere else in the UK and just about our most impressive butterfly.