Friday, July 13, 2018

BUTTERFLIES AT THE SMITHSONIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, WASHINGTON DC

Thank you for visiting and leaving comments.  I have been getting ready for company this weekend, and will be slow getting back to you, but I will catch up eventually.

This is an Atlas Moth.  They were in a mesh box protected from the public.  The reason was that they sleep during the day and are awake at night.

I have tried very hard to identify this type of long-wing but have had no success.

A few weeks ago we met up with out-of-town family in Washington DC.  They wanted to go to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  There is a small, enclosed butterfly garden in there.  I took photos and identified what I could.  If I was unsure I just left it.  Please feel free to ID them if you can, or even correct any you think I may have gotten wrong.
I could not find any ID on the butterfly above, and below I am not sure about the one on the left, but on the right is a Japanese Paper Kite.

Once again I tried hard but could not find an ID.




Above and below could not find an ID.

This one is called a Malachite.





 Lovely markings on this Leopard Lacewing Butterfly.

 Gregg had a Common Long-wing land on the back of his collar. 


 Another landed on the bottom of his shirt, a Blue Morpho. The butterflies were landing on a lot of people that day.
Here is another with less tattered wings.  A bit blurry but it gives you an idea of its pretty design. It would have been hard to take a larger camera into this small enclosure and it was crowded.  All these photos were taken with my cell phone.

Have a great weekend everyone!





32 comments:

  1. Your photos are so good, hard to believe you took them with your phone! All the butterflies are gorgeous, and I would rather see them than know their names. The Atlas moths are huge! I saw a T.V. show about them once. They do not have a mouth! They do not eat, they only live to reproduce, then they die. They are the largest moth there is, and only live for a week or two.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ginny :) That is very interesting about the Atlas Moth. Thanks for sharing, always love learning about these things.

      Delete
  2. I adore butterflies and moths. Ephemeral magic. Thank you so much and enjoy your company.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Could you arrange a shipment of pretties to my garden, please? All I ever see are those uninteresting white butterflies and an unidentifiable red.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heading your way Valerie :) If only I could :)))

      Delete
  4. Love the photos with such great details of beautiful butterflies and moths!

    ReplyDelete
  5. to me butterflies are like flying flowers, and your photos are just gorgeous of each of these and there are many I have never seen before.. super shots for sure.... I agree with ginny about the phone pics are amazing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sandra , they always make me happy to be around them. These phones get better and better for taking photos.

      Delete
  6. WOW, gorgeous butterflies and photos. The moth is amazing. Enjoy your day and weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I also find ID of insects very difficult. All the dragon and damsel flies I took last week are making my life impossible!
    Love this post though, beautiful photos Diane

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Diane, I am happy you enjoyed it. ID’ing things can get frustrating at times.

      Delete
  8. I did not expect to see living creatures at the museum. These are truly beautiful! I think the one after the Tiger is a Julia longwing/heliconian.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kenneth, I appreciate the help with the ID :) The Museum has a lot more interesting insects on display. I always enjoy them.

      Delete
  9. Hi Denise,
    A real wow for this post with the butterflies, the Blue Glassy Tiger is a real beauty, unfortunately I cannot help with the ID as I'm sure we see none of these in England.
    Also the Atlas Moth is a super image.
    Super post,
    All the best, John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi John, a lot of these butterflies we don’t get in the States, but we often see international ones in butterfly gardens. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

      Delete
  10. Even without all the IDs this was a very colorful post, Denise. I used to spend hours taking photos of the butterflies in our VA back yard so really appreciated seeing these. Enjoy your weekend and company.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Dorothy, so glad you enjoyed them.

      Delete
  11. So gorgeous. Imagine if we dressed like butterflies!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Those are all so colorful and pretty. Not seen a lot around my parts out in the yard this yr. Not many bees and butterflies...but if you need ants I have my share and a few more folks share! I think they are planning on taking over the world. Great pics. Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments while I havde been out and about and enjoying life.

    ReplyDelete
  13. beautiful captures, i was not aware of this butterfly garden!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Debbie, it is a small, almost tubular temporary room.

      Delete

Thank you so for taking the time to leave a comment. I enjoy reading them very much and always try to return a visit. As I do monitor comments it may take a while for them to appear, even quite late depending on what is going on and how much time I am able to spend on the computer.

I appreciate all who look at my blog, but I won't be publishing any businesses. If you are only able to publish anonymously, would you sign your name please, and leave an addy so I can return your visit where possible? Thank you!