A Few of FR's Finest...Every Day...03-15-06....Butterflies !! The "Pretty" Bugs!

DollyCali | March 15, 2006 | DollyCali

[DollyCali]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, dutchess, DollyCali GodblessUSA ~

Butterfly Facts

Did you know?

,,,that butterflies taste with their feet?

... that butterflies don't have noses? They smell with their antennae!

. . . that butterfly wings are covered with tiny scales? Different colored scales make up the pretty patterns we see.

... that butterflies are cold-blooded? The dark colors on their wings help them absorb the heat from the sun.

... that some butterflies wear camouflage? The wings of many butterflies have colors and patterns that blend in with their natural surroundings to protect them from predators.

... that butterflies can see ultraviolet light? Some scales on butterfly wings reflect light that is invisible to humans. Butterflies use these ultraviolet patterns to recognize each other.

... that a butterfly's mouth is like a drinking straw? That's because butterflies only eat liquid foods, like nectar from flowers or fruit. The mouth, called a proboscis, stays rolled up until it's time to eat.

... that a butterfly wasn't always a butterfly? Every butterfly starts as a tiny egg that hatches into a caterpillar)larvae). The caterpillar grows and grows until it's time to build a hardened shell around its body, called a chrysalis. While the caterpillar sleeps inside the (pupae) chrysalis, its body changes and grows new parts. When it comes out, it has become a butterfly, quite a different creature than a caterpillar!

Two weeks after hatching, the Monarch butterfly is 3,000 times its original birth weight. ..

The color in a butterfly's wings does not come from pigment. The color is produced prism-like by light reflected by their transparent wing scales..

The world’s smallest butterfly is the Pygmy Blue.  Its wingspan ranges between three eighths to half an inch in length. The largest butterfly in the world is the Giant Birdwing from the Solomon Islands. The female can have a wing span of over 12 inches..

Butterflies have an honed sense of smell and can detect nectar from miles away.  When they sense the blossoming of a plant they thrive on, they will travel for hours to reach it..

Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees

To A Butterfly (second) by William Wordsworth

'VE watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless!not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary;
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days, when we were young;
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.

Written in the orchard, Town-end, Grasmere.

From Cocoon Forth a Butterfly

FROM cocoon forth a butterfly
As lady from her door
Emerged—a summer afternoon—
Repairing everywhere,

Without design, that I could trace,
Except to stray abroad
On miscellaneous enterprise
The clovers understood.

Her pretty parasol was seen
Contracting in a field
Where men made hay, then struggling hard
With an opposing cloud,

Where parties, phantom as herself,
To Nowhere seemed to go
In purposeless circumference,
As ’t were a tropic show.

And notwithstanding bee that worked,
And flower that zealous blew,
This audience of idleness
Disdained they, from the sky,

Till sundown crept, a steady tide,
And men that made the hay,
And afternoon, and butterfly,
Extinguished in its sea.

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924

Another Song of a Fool

THIS great purple butterfly,
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.

Once he lived a schoolmaster
With a stark, denying look,
A string of scholars went in fear
Of his great birch and his great book.

Like the clangour of a bell,
Sweet and harsh, harsh and sweet,
That is how he learnt so well
To take the roses for his meat.

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939). The Wild Swans at Coole. 1919.

Butterfly Screen Saver

Kids Butterfly Site

The Butterfly Site

Greta oto is one of a number of similar transparent winged butterflies. It comes from central America, and is found from Mexico to Panama. It is quite common in its zone, but it not easy to find because of its transparent wings, which is a natural camouflage mechanism.

Greta oto is a brush-footed butterfly, and is a member of the clearwing clade; its wings are transparent. Its most common English name is glasswing, and its Spanish name is espejitos, which means "little mirrors." Indeed, the tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass. It is one of the more abundant clearwing species in its home range. The opaque borders of its wings are dark brown sometimes tinted with red or orange, and its body is dark in color. Its wingspan is between 5.5 and 6 cm.

Adults inhabit the rainforest understory and feed on the nectar of a variety of tropical flowers. G. oto prefers to lay its eggs on plants of the tropical nightshade genus Cestrum. The silvery-gray caterpillars feed on these toxic plants and store the alkaloids in their tissues, making them distasteful to predators such as birds. They retain their toxicity in adulthood. The same alkaloids that make them poisonous also are converted into pheromones by the males, which use them to attract females..

G. oto adults also exhibit a number of interesting behaviors, such as long migrations and lekking among males..

Greta oto Scientific classification

Domain:--- Eukaryota
Kingdom: ---Animalia
Phylum:--- Arthropoda
Class---: Insecta
Order:---Lepidoptera
Suborder: ---Ditrysia
Division:--- Rhopalocera
Superfamily: ---Papilionoidea
Family: ----Nymphalidae
Subfamily: ---Ithomiinae
Genus: ---Greta
Species:--- G. oto

12-28-05 ~ Hall of Fame #14

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 03-13-06 Military Monday 03-14-06....A Finest Pet Day ~ The Doggie Dictionary

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' Every Thursday at the Finest The guy's good, folks!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi everybody.

Nice thread, Dolly, your butterflies are lovely.

Who is the Butterfly?

She is beautiful
In her confidence
A smile that melts thoughts away
With glittering eyes like stars in the night
and her flirting pose makes this heart race
and she knows, yes she knows I cannot take flight

She is beautiful
In her kindness
Always a little for one that has less
With open hands offered to a friend in need
and her concerns become my concerns
and she knows, yes she knows I will follow her lead

She is beautiful
In her humor
A laugh that could drown tears of the sad
With quickness of mind and rye is her smile
and she whispers when she gets me alone
She will play with me, she will play with me for a while

She is beautiful
because she is she
Who is the butterfly she asks me
With finger tips on her cheek, I replied ''it's you''
and her eyes light up like a child again
no she replied, oh no she replied ''it's you''

~ Red Alex Moon

[Majie Purple]

Oh Thanks much! I was just reading through in entirety again saw the Table & poem before the ping to it even! After looking through the Thread again I wanted to ping Dolly to tell her I'm FR Links Bookmarking it...& then I see the table & poem. That's the cherry atop this Butterfly sundae!

[luvie]

Gosh, you two, that is just a beautiful collaboration! I love butterflies. They are so ethereal.

[Majie Purple]

Hello there Victoria! Awesome Flittering Butterfly graphic!

[Majie Purple]

Just noticed the poem...So cute!

[Majie Purple]

"I kinda wondered - if somebody was talkin' ugly 'bout butterflies it must be the end of the world.

; )"

That's funny!

[Mama_Bear]

This was fun, and your thread is just beautiful, Dolly.

An Irish Blessing

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun.
And find your shoulder to light on.
To bring you luck, happiness and riches.
Today, tomorrow and beyond.

[luvie]

Gorgeous! Wow. I wish I had time to play around with this. I got here so late and now have to flutter off again myself.

[DollyCali]

grade = A+

comments = wowsie!

love it!

BTW, how is Mr. mama_bear? I have a friend who is going on his 6th week of misery with the creepy crud

[Mama_Bear]

Hi LUV. I can't stay either. Tonight is Chachi's class at PetsMart. But it was nice seeing you for a few minutes.

[Majie Purple]

"sources....I need COFFEE!" Well...here ya go!

[Jemian]

Thanks. I discovered it when my kids were young. It has stuck with me since.

[Majie Purple]

"Oh what fun today has been!!" I so agree! Have fun posin' your pics! I sure am obv. LOL!

[Mama_Bear]

BTW, how is Mr. mama_bear? I have a friend who is going on his 6th week of misery with the creepy crud

He's doing okay now. Finally went back to the doctor because he just wasn't getting better. Come to find out, some of his problem is that he quit smoking 'cold turkey' on Valentine's Day - no patch, no gum, no nuthin', and doctor says that nicotine withdrawal makes many people feel physically ill, like they have the flu. So that, combined with the allergic reactions to the pollens in the air and the bronchitis that he was trying to get over, hit him pretty hard.

But he is doing much better now. I will tell him that you asked about him. He will appreciate that. :-)

[Majie Purple]

Thanks Mama Bear for your beautifl butterfly blessing!

[DollyCali]

She's a Butterfly

Martina McBride

She remembers when she first got her wings
And how she opened up that day
she learned to sing
Then the colors came, erased the
black and white
And her whole world changed
when she realized

[Chorus:]
She's a butterfly, pretty as the crimson sky
Nothing's ever gonna bring her down
And everywhere she goes
Everybody knows she's so glad to be alive
She's a butterfly

Like the purest light in a darkened world
So much hope inside such a lovely girl
You should see her fly, it's almost magical
It makes you wanna cry, she's so beautiful

[Chorus]

God bless the butterfly,
give her the strength to fly
Never let her wings touch the ground
God bless the butterfly,
give her strength to fly
Never let her wings touch the ground

[Chorus]

God bless the butterfly,
give her the strength to fly
Never let her wings touch the ground
God bless the butterfly,
give her the strenght to fly
Never let her wings touch the ground

[Mama_Bear]

Hi Maj. You're welcome. I can't think of a nicer group of people to send that blessing to. :-)

[Majie Purple]

"...I can't think of a nicer group of people to send that blessing to. :-)"

That is such a sweet Mama Bearish thing to say!

[DollyCali]

Is a caterpillar ticklish?
Well, its always my belief
That he giggles as he wiggles
Across a hairy leaf.

[Majie Purple]