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The giant tree nymph (Idea leuconoe), also known as the paper kite butterfly and rice paper butterfly, is a rather large and striking butterfly.
Since it stayed nice and still for me, I took three overlapping shots of it in portrait orientation and joined them together manually using Photoshop to create a 95 megapixel shot with more detail than usual.
My co-worker Anny saw this shot and noticed that the black markings on the wings kind of look like hearts and now I can't unsee that.
The female of the scarlet mormon (Papilio rumanzovia) can vary a bit in apparance, but they are all very pretty butterflies with the red accents on a black base. This one is also a female of the same species: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51966869231/
And the underside is also very attractive - like so: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53653353393/
The male has red on the underside of the wings, but the dorsal side is significantly more subdued, like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52698707189/
Part 1 (from the other side) here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54445227760/
The leopard lacewing (Cethosia cyane) is a rather striking butterfly with this ventral side and a orange dorsal side with plack and white tips. So why is the species name "cyane" - meaning blue?
Well, it is because the white part at the front of the dorsal side of the wings will soon turn more light blue - this one has just crawled out of its chrysalis and its wings are still drying/hardening.
One of my favourites at the Haga Ocean butterfly house is the gold rim swallowtail (Battus polydamas), also known as the tailless swallowtail and Polydamas swallowtail.
These seemto have a predilection for sitting on the floor where people walk (while looking up at butterflies) and this one was no exception. I put my finger in front of it and it climbed on so I could move it to a twig - which eneded up becoming a nice photo.
From today's visit to the butterfly house, here is a relative of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) known as the African queen (Danaus chrysippus), but also as the plain tiger and African monarch.
This one belongs to the Danainae sub-family - the milkweed butterflies. And as the name implies, the larvae has milkweeds as their host plants which contains toxins that the caterpillar not only can deal with but also store, making the butterfly non-palatable.
Today, I was visiting the Haga Ocean butterfly house (again) and had a really good time chatting with visitors about all the cool butterflies there.
When I discovered this one climbing out of the undergrowth, I got really excited though. I got it out of there and it took off and began flying back and forth - with me and the camera on its tripod running (ok, walking) after it.
Eventually it landed in a somewhat awkward spot, but I managed to cram the camera into a position where I was able to get a couple of shots I liked.
This is one of the swordtails, a species called the cream-striped swordtail (Graphium porthaon), but also called the coastal swordtail and dark swordtail, which in the wild is found in tropical western Africa.
I have figured out a great little system to get some shooting time with the butterflies in the outdoors macro off-season (which is rather significant up here in the north).
I work nights and the Haga Ocean butterfly house is right there on my way to work. So what I do is I leave a couple of hours early for work and stop off there and shoot butterflies before packing up and going to work.
This of course mans you have to know when to stop and sometimes, it is a bit difficult if there are nice butterflies posing.
As I decided it really was timie to go on a April 10th (of 2025) visit, I spotted this one, a great eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina), also known as the blue moon butterfly, and decided I had time for one more.
This female scarlet peacock (Anartia amathea) was sitting on the floor at the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Solna, Sweden, when I was visiting on April 10th (of 2025).
Since there was a very ral risk of it getting stepped on, I put my finger in fronto f it and it immediately climbed on and then I proceeded to hold my finger next to the flower on a peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii) and she moved over to that one. And there she stayed during the entirety of my visit that day so I managed to get a couple of shots.
This one is a completely uncropped, 50 megapixel shot so there should be plenty of detail to see if you zoom in.
Time for another one of those extra extra large composite shots.
This time it is a shot of a male blue-frosted banner (Catonephele numilia), also known as the stoplight Catone and the Grecian shoemaker, made from six shots, resulting in a 210+ megapixel shot.
The female of the scarlet mormon (Papilio rumanzovia) can vary a bit in apparance, but they are all very pretty butterflies with the red accents on a black base. This one is also a female of the same species: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51966869231/
And the underside is also very attractive - like so: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53653353393/
The male has red on the underside of the wings, but the dorsal side is significantly more subdued, like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52698707189/
It isn't showing very well in this particular shot - but this butterlfy, known as the great orange-tip (Hebomoia glaucippe) like the name suggests has the tips of the wings in orange (trimmed with a black border) - just on the other side of the wings.
This is the first shot of one for me, but to tell you the truth, I really wished I got to see the caterpillar instead.
This might sound like an odd wish, but let me tell you, they are super-cool! It's a green caterpillar, but it has a shiny black "eye spot" on the side and when feeling threatened it can inflate segments around it's front legs to mimic a snake head and then swing the head from side to side like a vine snake does.
But that's not the only defense this one emplys. It also has a peptide toxin in its wings called glacontryphan-M.
Many butterflies have differing colour schemes on the ventral and dorsal side of the wings, but the rusty-tipped edge (Siproeta epaphus) isn't one of them. Check here for an older shot shoing the underside: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53220299515/
Sometimes when I visit the Haga Ocean butterfly house, I spot a butterfly and think that it is just another one of a species I have photographed many times before - which makes it less interesting to shoot.
But sometimes, just sometimes, it turns out to be a different species so I can add another one to the list (something I find unaturally satisfying).
When photographing this one, I was convinced it was a mylotes cattleheart (Parides eurimedes), but looking at it now, I can see that the markings along the edges of the wings actually are white and not pink like they would be on a P. eurimedes. This along with some other details lead me to believe this is an
emerald-patched cattleheart (Parides sesostris), also known as the southern cattleheart.
Said emerald patches are located on the dorsal side of the wings, someting this one wasn't offering up when I saw it on an early March of 2025 visit.
For comparison's sake, here is a P. eurimedes in very much the same pose: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52960191286/
Finding a new-to-me species of swallowtail at the Haga Ocean butterfly after 100+ visits is always a treat.
This particular one from a visit in early March (of 2025) in one of two species and because it was very old and worn, I am unable to tell which of them it is. It's either a Cramer's swallowtail (Battus lycidas) or a Belus swallowtail (Battus belus).
Not much of the dorsal side is showing here, but the little you can see hints of the dark blueish-green metallic sheen it has. Hopefully, I'll come across a fresh specimen on a future visit.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54404505851/
I actually prefer the name Low's swalowtail (Papilio lowii), but this one is also called the great yellow mormon - a name that feels a bit weird when you see the male here.
The females vary in colour and when you see one looking like this: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52610765549/ the name still doesn't make sense. Here however, is one which more fits the name: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52845038432/
I'm actually a biut surprised how nicely this shot of a female mocker swallowtail (Papilio dardanus), also known as the Saharan swallowtail, African swallowtail and flying hankerchief, came out.
The name "mocker swallowtail" comes from the females mimicking a plethora of other species - at least 14 different colour forms are known.
The male also looks quite different to this - here is one: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54025674663/
The dirce beauty (Colobura dirce), also known as the zebra mosaic, is a small butterfly - but rather striking.
This one allowed me to take two photos and then promptly took off, but I'm happy for both of them.
Normally, the one-spot prepona (Archaeoprepona demophon), also known as tha banded king shoemaker, is not very fond of showing the ventral side of the wings when resting.
This particular one however had managed to not get its wings completely flat when they hardened which mean that part of the dorsal side was showing even when it tried to keep them closed. The damage wasn't that severe theough so it could still fly.
For a shot of one showing it's wings completely open, have a look here:
www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54327209983/