The prompt today was stained glass. Well, butterflies and moths remind me of stained glass so I’ll take it from there.

I love watching and photographing them (if I can, they’re hard to photograph because they’re always flitting about).

Here are some butterflies nectaring:

Some Victorian artists liked to make art out of butterfly wings –

Or this one

Or this:

When butterfly collectors catch them they paralyze them and then pin them. Kind of gruesome I think but I guess if you want to preserve them…

Butterflies and moths are famous for their metamorphosis, the way they change from one form into another as they mature. From egg to caterpillar, and caterpillar to pupa in a cocoon or a chrysalis depending if they’re a moth or a butterfly. In the chrysalis or cocoon, they lose their caterpillar body to overwinter until they are ready to eclose (emerge) as a butterfly or moth. I have collected monarch caterpillars and Cecropia moth cocoons and gotten to watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar to cocoon or chrysalis, to butterfly or moth. I had to stay up all night waiting or I’d miss it. Truly amazing! Here is a set of photos of the process.

Here is a somewhat abstract set of photos of the same process.

And here is my drawing of a Monarch

Enough for now. Time for me to curl up in my cocoon and go to sleep.💤