Hello, good morning to all nature lovers. Today I am happy because I was finally able to photograph a butterfly up close. There is a popular phrase that says: “He who perseveres, achieves”, and today I can apply it to this achievement after so many failed attempts months ago to get a larger image of these wonderful creatures.

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I can't tell if I stealthily chased her or she wanted to be photographed by me to show the world her beauty. The truth is that yesterday was clean-up day in the garden, and my lemon balm plant had grown so much that its branches were already spreading over the ground. When it grows like that and I do not prune it, it becomes a shelter for good visitors and I love that, but also for others not so good, since there are some little animals that pierce its leaves, according to what the gardener told me, it is a worm, and the ants also collaborate in this deterioration... I do not know which of the two is the carrier of a fungus that lightens the color of the leaves and leaves very ugly spots, and for that reason I must prune it and let new branches be born.

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The truth is that in it you can observe a variety of butterflies of beautiful colors, and many sizes, wasps, bees, and grasshoppers also arrive. Photographing these species has never been easy because they do not perch for more than 2 seconds, and that is why my attempts have always been unsuccessful. Yesterday, for the first time, a huge butterfly landed on several branches of the lemon balm, and lasted up to 2 minutes or more without moving from some leaves.

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I couldn't tell if it was feeding, or laying its eggs on a leaf. As I was able to find out, they lay them on milkweed leaves, but they also use some plants such as daisy and sage whose nectar attracts them, so it is possible that the lemon balm is in this special selective group.

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I also inquired what type of butterfly it was, and by its physical characteristics it is a white peacock butterfly that abounds in the warm and wild spaces of America. Its scientific name, Anartia jatrophae. I am fascinated with its physique and the beautiful design of its wings but the most incredible thing is that the details are the same as I saw in images on the web. Nature is perfect.

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I hope you enjoyed this post, thank you very much for visiting my blog. Happy day.

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_{IMAGE SOURCES}

_{All the images belong to my digital archive.
The translator used is: Deepl Translator
Dividers courtesy of eve66.}

_{SOURCE OF INFORMATION CONSULTED}

_{Anartia jatrophae in Wikipedia.}