Ppppbbbbttthh! [Butterfly tongue sound]
You didn't know butterflies had tongues did you.
Looks like they kinda have 'tocks too. Sure, they're long, cylindrical 'tocks, but they're 'tocks all right [puts away magnifying glass]
These glass-wing butterflies are nuts aren't they?!
Thank you, Auntie Olga!
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Bleen!
Ahhhh! First posser?
And butterfly tocks are...different. But cute-imous!
I knew butterflies had tongues! I had one land on me last summer and taste me! First?
@mervthe flamingo - ah, crap! :(
How beautiful! Butterflies have a very special meaning for me, so it was wonderful to see this. Thanks for making me smile today. :-)
OMG NOT FRIST!
glass-wings are very beautiful indeed, I'd never heard of them before...
huzzah for the shopkeep!
Thats photoshoped...the equivalent of a infamous lie...please stop it.
I have never seen butterflies with see through wings before. They look like a mosquito with wings. Where are they from?
Stained glass wings.
Fable--
That sentence, a[n] equivalent of a grammatical nightmare. Plus, it IS NOT SHOPPED.
That tongue! And I thought the rabbit tongues were a revelation. Wow! And wings that look like stained glass windows--all things beautiful mebbe really do derive from nature.
[runs to convert to pantheism]
What a precious little creature! You can see the environment/foliage right through the wings!! Amazing! Last summer I was at the pool and captured a beautiful butterfly in my hands (until it escaped through my thumbs). It felt special. Anyway, I later read that it is dangerous for the butterfly, when a human hand touches it. They use the scales on their wings to navigate properly, and when one of us touches them, they fall off...affecting their navigational skills. It's a shame, too--the little buggers are so wonderful to capture, even if for a moment. :^(
so pretty! and, tiny-ness-wise, also cute! this site never fails to introduce great new stuff.
Did my "first!" become "bleen?" how did that happen?
Tor, That's their tongue?How cool are they. I like them.
This is the point where nature and magic meet. Wow.
now seriously... are those real???
MervTheFlamingo -- like I said... MAGIC!
http://www.squidgrid.com/cute/Glossary.htm#FP
Gorgeous pics!
Re: shop-whiners, they're for real, quit your crying.
The link doesn't really explain the situation. I mean, it links you to "Bleen" which says "not in the dictionary", or a picture of a kitty. I ...seriously...don't...get..it.
All my learnin' comes from CO re: tongues.
Oh, and random internet searches:
Proboscis - the butterfly tongue, which works like a drinking straw. In metamorphosis, the proboscis is formed as two separate parts, which the butterfly uncoils and zips together to form a tube for drinking.
http://www.iit.edu/~smart/pearkat/lesson1.htm
What do you suppose it feels like if a butterfly licks you?
QUOTE OF THE YEAR!
Tor: "All my learnin' comes from CO re: tongues"
L.
O.
L!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasswing_butterfly
for all you shop whiners!
beautiful! i wouldn't say that they're "cute" though...
oh yea?? well, dragonflies can bite!!! yea, it hurts. Me and my younger cousins had this little playskool colorful tent, and we caught moths and butterflies and dragonflies etc. and i was the "trainer" i had to grab the dragonflies gently by the end of the tail, and keep petting them and petting them until they let us hold them no sweat. Well!! they would curl over and bit me, while i still had their tails!! oh well, i as still able to train them... sorta.
well i love how pretty these butterflies are!!! i just lurve their little transparent wings...
That's what they look like dragon flys.
Beauti-fly!
Ceejoe, They are real:
Glasswing Butterfly(Greta Oto) is a brush-footed butterfly where its wings are transparent. The tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass. They are found in the range which extends throughout Central America into Mexico.
I just wanna clarify that I'm not a shop whiner... even though I asked if they were real...
I've just never seen such a thing and am amazed by the beauty and variety of nature!
And thanks for the wikipedia link - I also learned what lekking is! 0.o
Frans Lanting has lots of butterfly pictures. Check this one out. There are other Stained Glass Butterflys on this site. The butterflies seem to live in Peru and Madagascar. Enjoy.
Three strikes, somebody's out.
Laura M., I agree this is more "beautiful" than "cute." I'll take it though!
...
Actually, if we had a COXCU of that curly proboscis, I think we would be well within "cute" territory. Ppppbbbbttthh, indeed.
I love Flutterbys!!
And this one is 'specially gorgeous!!
Oooh, aaah. Airy fairy.
sorry for stupidness but...what's bleen?
I wasn't referring to you ceejoe. Since Theo has Handled The Problem, that's where I'll leave it.
Proboscis closeup: http://www.backyardnature.net/but_prob.jpg
Gorgeous! I'ma just gonna sit back, slurp some puddin's and enjoy the beauty.
Theo, Gotcha.
Man, I hate it when I get here too late and Theo has already "handled" it....it's fun to read of other's stupidity....LOL..
oh yeah..these are some groovy butterflies....I would say I wanna put one in my mouf...but that would be weird. and kinda oogly feeling.
[sigh] ...please let's move on? Seriously. They're gorgeous.
Just to add to what Tor said:
The "tongue" on butterflies is a proboscis. It's a specialized mouthpart found in moths and butterflies. It performs the same function for a butterfly that a hummingbird beak performs for butterflies (i.e. it's long and good for suckin' nectar).
It's a beak, really.
Also, it's "butt" is its abdomen. And, yes, they are actually pretty cute, especially when the bugs are all chubby buggies.
This entomology lesson came to you from the course I'm taking this semester. Having raised milkweed bugs, I can attest to the cuteness of buggy abdomens.
^____________________^
RUNNER-UP QUOTE?
"I can attest to the cuteness of buggy abdomens"
Ooh, here's a good closeup:
http://www.astrographics.com/GalleryPrintsIndex/GP2007.html
The site doesn't say but it looks like a false-colored electron microscope pic, which would make the closeupness fairly extreme indeed.
Another nice find, Zombie.
There was a butterfly exhibit here in Tucson I want to go see a few times. I saw a glasswing... They're really nest. There were also blue morphos and owl butterflies. both of which are quite large.
And, yes, butterflies have really long "tongues" I saw a few of them eating (they had fruit out for them). It was really fun to walk through and see them all. ^_^
Wow.
Just wow.
Great finds all around!
And that's why I love to visit a conservatory butterfly show whenever possible. Indy, St. Louis, Cinci--there's nothing like walking (very carefully!!) through a garden with so many butterflies all around you.
I'm agreeing with the folks who put this in the category of "beautiful" rather than "cute." I don't really want to snorgle the glasswing -- it's too tiny and delicate. But oh, my, they ARE beautiful!
So Beautiful.
I've seen some beautiful butterfly jewelry but no Fabergé compares to this.
Wow, whatta little treasure God made! I'm not one to invoke His name casually but this...is truly incredible. I didn't know such things existed. Wish we had them in Ohio... :(
Wouldn't the world be a better place full of creatures like these?