Butterflies!

It was butterfly day in the garden a couple of days ago.

First, a pair of southern whites (Ascia monuste) obligingly settled in the perfect place for a photo. I don't know what it was they found so attractive, but they didn't want to leave it.

Not long after, a giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) settled -- and stayed for a long time -- on a Murraya, close to where I was working.

If you're not familiar with this butterfly, it's not only the largest of the North American swallowtails, it's the largest butterfly on the continent, with a wingspan that may exceed six inches.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Realizing it was my lucky day for butterflies, I took the camera around the garden. After a fruitless wait for one of the skittish zebra longwings (Heliconius charithonia) to settle on something, a male julia (Dryas iulia -- note it's "i," not "j.") conveniently landed on an elephant ear right in front of me. This one is old (relatively speaking), probably a couple of weeks, indicated by the many missing scales.