LAUREN'S BUTTERFLIES OF BELIZE (Part Four)

Is brought to you by ReMax Isla Bonita - everything we touch, turns to sold!


Butterflies from Around the World:  http://www.pbase.com/lejun/butterflies_from_around_the_world

THE CLOUDED SULPHUR BUTTERFLY
These are the prettiest little yellow butterflies.  They seem so fragile, even just to look at.  The Clouded Sulphur is found almost anywhere in Mexico and Belize.  Their wings are lemon-yellow with a black border and spot on each forewing.  The female can be very pale yellow, making it harder to distinguish her from other types of butterflies.  The average wingspan of a Clouded Sulphur butterfly is 2” inches.

Their range is from South America to southern Canada. Their habitat is wide open spaces, gardens, glades, seashores, and watercourses.  The adult butterfly loves nectar plants from many different flowers, with long tubes including cordia, bougainvillea, cardinal flower, daisys, dandelion, hibiscus, lantana, milkweed and wild morning glories.  Their life cycle is dependent on the climate, from mid-summer to fall in the cooler areas, to year round in the warmer tropical climates such as Belize.

The Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly starts out as a white egg.  Eventually it will turn to a pale orange.  The egg stage lasts six days.  Then a caterpillar emerges that is yellow to greenish, stripes on its sides, with black pota-dots in a row across its back.  The caterpillar will usually grow to a length between 41-45 mm.

WE JUST LOVE THESE LITTLE "YELLOW BUTTERFLIES".

LAUREN'S BUTTERFLIES OF BELIZE (Part Three)

Is brought to you by ReMax Isla Bonita - everything we touch, turns to sold!


Butterflies from Around the World:  http://www.pbase.com/lejun/butterflies_from_around_the_world

PINK CATTLEHEART BUTTERFLIES - Tropical Rainforests of Central America
I like to think of this butterfly as the Belize rainforest butterfly. 
It was very hard to find alot of information about this butterfly.  Their common name comes from the bright red spots on their hind wings.  The wing span is approximately 2.8 to 3.3 inches.  Both sexes have black wings, with a red spot on the dorsal hind wing.  The dorsal fore wing of the male has a triangular green patch, and the dorsal fore wing of the female has a white patch.

There seems to be quite a bit of variability in the coloring and markings of this species.  Their habitat is commonly the tropical rain forests of Mexico and North South America. 

Cattleheart caterpillars feed on the poisonous pioevine plant (aristolchia sp.) and these toxins are incorporated into their blood.  For this reason, the Cattleheart butterflies are unpalatable to birds. 

So the next time you are walking through the rainforest in Belize, stop for a moment in the sunshine and see if you can see a Cattleheart Butterfly.