On one of my recent hikes I came across a patch of gorgeous orange butterfly bush, also known as butterfly weed, and it certainly lived up to it’s name. In that one patch of flowers there were several zebra swallowtails feeding on the flowers as well as a couple of Phaon crescent butterflies. When I took a closer look at the flowers themselves, I also spotted this fuzzy little woolly bear caterpillar (Hypercompe scribonia) that was eating some of the flowers and leaves. All of them seemed very content and didn’t even mind my sneaking in to take a few photos.

Woolly bears are the caterpillars of the giant leopard moths. They tend to be nocturnal, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this same bush attracted the adult moths at night. I have to say, this was one of the biggest concentrations of butterflies I’ve seen in such a small area. The patch was probably only about three feet in diameter, but butterflies were constantly coming and going. It was great fun and quite beautiful watching the various colorful butterflies flying around this bright orange patch of flowers and obviously enjoying the nectar. I could probably have stayed there for hours, but it was getting closer and closer to sundown and I really didn’t like the thought of being out in the woods without a light after dark.