ever see a butterfly with clear wings?????

[Gato Moteado]

well, we have several species of clear winged butterflies in costa rica. i was in the rainforest in guayabo today and i took these shots:

(on edit: when i took the shot i didn't notice it, but after editing it in photoshop i saw a cool looking chrysalis for another butterfly....you can see it just to the right of the butterfly in the top photo...it's hanging from an unopened bud and it looks like it has a pearl in the bottom of it)

http://i55.photobucket.com.nyud.net:8090/albums/g138/GatoMoteado/clearwing_1522.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com.nyud.net:8090/albums/g138/GatoMoteado/clearwing_1522b.jpg

and my tica companion was able to capture this one momentarily so you can really see that the wings are fully transparent:

http://i55.photobucket.com.nyud.net:8090/albums/g138/GatoMoteado/clearwing_1537b.jpg

[qnr]

1. Wow. Nice! n/t

[Gato Moteado]

12. yeah....biodiversity is a cool thing

nt

[Haole Girl]

2. That is cool!

Please tell me you let that one go...right?

[Gato Moteado]

3. of course we let it go

we saw a bunch of blue morphos too but they're just too damn erratic to photograph

[Haole Girl]

5. The Ulysses we saw in Australia were very hard to photograph

I thought we'd caught some, with our digital camera, but later realized we didn't. :-( They were so beautiful, though! :)

[Gato Moteado]

6. wow....those are brilliant blue as well!

the diversity of butterflies here in CR is unbelievable. i see more species in one day then i could see in a year in the states.

[zonkers]

18. Too bad you let it go, I have a nice recipe for breaded butterfly wings.

Bad joke. But those pictures are amazing.

[Gato Moteado]

20. thanks....

the pictures are OK....the animal is amazing.

:)

[Bossy Monkey]

4. 'Zounds! It's the rare glasstop coffetable butterfly!

:P

[Gato Moteado]

11. sounds as good a name as any

we have several species of clearwing butterflies here in CR. in the states i used to see the snowberry clearwing moth quite a bit....it's a diurnal moth that looks just like a bumblebee.

[Nicole]

7. Amazing

I've never seen anything like that. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Gato Moteado]

9. con mucho gusto nicole!

i post 'em as i photograph 'em.

[Nicole]

14. I look forward to seeing more of them n/t

[u4ic]

8. Stunning!

Wow!

[Gato Moteado]

10. i wish you could have seen some of the ones i wasn't able....

...to photograph!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. My dear Gato Moteado!

Wow, these are wonderful pics!

Thank you sooooo much for posting them....

Amazing...transparent butterflies!

Very beautiful indeed!

:applause: :woohoo: :woohoo: :applause:

[Gato Moteado]

16. thanks, peggy

glad you enjoyed them. they're really neat to see in real life.

[mad-mommy]

15. totally cool pics

[Gato Moteado]

17. ah, thanks.

[Richard Steele]

19. Wow, nice pics.

I've seen Dragonflies with clear wings, of course,
but never a Butterfly. That's very cool.
Thanks for sharing it with DU.

[Gato Moteado]

22. glad you enjoyed the pics.....

....i'll try to keep them coming. next week i'm heading to braulio carillo national park and i always see cool stuff there.

[Kajsa]

21. Beautiful pictures, Gato.

I've never seen a butterfly with clear wings.
They are beautiful.

Thanks so much for sharing these.

:hi:

[Gato Moteado]

27. thanks....hey, i'm glad you enjoyed them!

it's always nice to know that there are other people out there interested in the same cool stuff as i am!

[myrna minx]

23. Those are so beautiful.

:hi:

[Gato Moteado]

28. i wish i could send you one.....

....but i think customs might object.

[NV Whino]

24. Wow!

Nifty frogs and designer butterflies! Costa Rica rocks. Beautiful photos.

[Gato Moteado]

31. thanks.....

....the frogs are cool down here. and i've only posted photos of the poison dart frogs. we also have a transparent frog called a glass frog and a cool tree frog called the red eyed tree frog.

and you should see the birds. ever seen a quetzal?

[JitterbugPerfume]

25. there was a clear wing butterfly

at the butterfly festival at Meijer Park in Grand Rapids this yr

I just saw one though , and was not able to find out what its name was


It was very beautiful

[Gato Moteado]

29. do you mean you just saw a clearwing butterfly in grand rapids?

in the wild? if so, it was probably a moth....i don't know of any clearwing butterflies outside the tropics. but there are clearwing moths in the states....my favorite is the snowberry clearwing which is a moth that mimics a bumblebee.

the butterflies in the photos i took here are probably Greta oto, the most common clearwing butterfly in costa rica, but i'm not 100% positive since there are probably 30 different clearwing species here. google "Greta oto" and you'll see more info on them.

[JitterbugPerfume]

32. no

it was in a controlled environment

[blondeatlast]

26. My science-mad son LOVED these! Thank you so much.

I was once given an advance copy of a Costa Rica travel book and have pined for the place ever since.

Beautiful photography, too. Thank you for sharing!

Now I ask, on how many other sites could you find someone sharing such a find? I love DU!

[Gato Moteado]

30. if your science-mad son is into the natural sciences, then do him a favor

...and take him on a vacation to the tropical rainforest. costa rica is a good choice because of the friendliness and stability of the country. i wish i could have come down here when i was a kid.

i have a rainforest property in the north part of the country in an area called sarapiqui and whenever i visit it i feel like i just walked into a national geographics documentary.

[Gato Moteado]

33. interestingly, i just realized the one in the bottom photo......

....seems to be a different species than the one in the top two photos. the one in the top two photos is the same specimen. but the one in the bottom photo is one we saw a few minutes later. i just assumed they were of the same species but if you look closely you can see that the wings are much different.