MissouriGreen

I spotted my first monarchs this week, and managed to get a couple of photos of them and some of their friends at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Monarch butterfly:

I was finally able to capture an image of a Cabbage White. Though they are common, they're difficult to photograph because they move about more than most of the other butterflies. They're also a very aggressive butterfly, chasing away other types of butterflies and, on a couple of occasions, small birds.

The following dainty beauty is most likely a male Clouded Sulphur :

There's always room for one more Painted Lady photo:

At first I thought this butterfly was a male Taxiles Skipper, but the Butterflies and Moths of North America guide say that this species has never been spotted in Missouri. Running through all of the Skipper photos, I then found the Fiery Skipper, which is known to be in Missouri. The two are very similar, at least to someone new to butterfly identification.

A quick note to readers: if these photos seem a little washed out, it's because I use color management with my photos. What this means is that the photos are edited using a specialized "sRGB color profile" common to Windows, and then the color profile is inserted into the photo in order for the color to be properly managed in other environments. However, only Safari and Firefox 3 with a special color management add-on correctly interpret the profile on the Mac.