Category Archives: Cape Cod Butterflies

Beautiful Little Wood Satyr Butterfly On Cape Cod!

I hadn’t seen a Little Wood Satyr butterfly in a couple of years and this one was stunning. It  landed on a leaf on the side of the Doane Rock Trail to Coast Guard Beach.

The Little Wood Satyr butterfly lives on woodland edges as well as salt marshes, which explains why we saw it there on that trail.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? I love its markings…

Exquisite Buckeye Butterfly At Fort Hill On Cape Cod… A First For Me!

I had never seen a Buckeye butterfly before, so it came as quite a surprise to see one on the trail at Fort Hill yesterday. I had no idea what it was… only that it was just beautiful! Those colors and those spots! What could it be? (Click on blog link to see other photos.)

I posted 3 different photographs: 1. The upper side of the Buckeye which is very colorful. 2. The wings are partially  closed. 3. The wings are mostly closed. How different it looks when its wings are closed. It just blends in. It seemed to like being right on the gravel trail.

The Buckeye lives year-round in the southern United States but ventures up to New England for the summer. It has a wing span of 2- 2.5″. It is brown with 2 orange bars on its forewings and 2 different sized eyespots on each wing. It lives in open fields and meadows.

Have you ever seen a Buckeye butterfly? Those colors and patterns are gorgeous!

American Painted Lady Butterfly On Cape Cod!

Phil and I were sitting on a bench by Rock Harbor, enjoying the spectacular day and the gorgeous views. Right in front of us, an American Painted Lady butterfly landed on a yellow flower. I clicked away thinking it was a Painted Lady butterfly. (Click on Blog link to see other photo.)

It wasn’t until I got home and looked at it on my computer that I realized it was an American Painted Lady. You can tell the difference by the 2 blue spots on each of its hind wings. You can see them inthe fist photograph. Very pretty.

The 2nd photograph shows you the distinct difference in its upper side and underside. Quite a bit of camouflage when its wings are closed!

Have you ever seen an American Painted Lady butterfly?

Question Mark Butterfly On Our Front Porch On Cape Cod!

Phil was making dinner the other night when he looked out the front window and saw this brown butterfly on the railing. I got my camera and went outside to take some photographs, not knowing what kind of butterfly it was. (Click on link to see other photograph.)

In doing some research, I found that the brown is the underside of a Question Mark butterfly and acts as camouflage. These Question Mark butterflies are frequently called “anglewings” for the shape of their wings which you can easily see in both  photographs.

It stayed on the railing until dark, so I never got a photograph of the upper side. The 2nd photograph is from Wikipedia so you could see  difference between the upper side and the underside. Quite a difference, don’t you think?

Have you ever seen a Question Mark butterfly?