American Snout Butterfly

No, this picture is not upside down.  The butterfly is hanging upside down.

I keep seeing what I think is the same American snout butterfly (Libytheana carinenta) in our front yard.  I’m not sure what is attracting it, since there are no hackberry trees in our yard, and I don’t know of any nearby.  It may just be drinking from the lantanas.   I’ve heard that these butterflies can appear in great numbers during migrations in the fall.  But this one seems to be alone (although there might be a few others around that I haven’t seen).  At any rate, it’s not part of a mass migration, during which adult American snout butterflies can darken the sky with their numbers and their larvae can strip hackberry trees almost bare, though the trees usually make more leaves and recover.  The elongated mouthparts (labial palpi) give this butterfly what looks like a giant nose.  It’s one of my favorite butterflies, both for its strange appearance and its willingness to let the human viewer get up close to observe it.  

I'm not sure why this butterfly is interested in these overripe lantana "berries," either.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2021

 

To most indigenous thinking people, the United States is not a melting pot; it is a boiling mess. No longer do we have the clear blue skies, but acid rain, maybe soon cyanide and nuclear rain, destroying life on land and water. No longer clear cool waters, but outrageous pollution destroying all forms of water life--believe it or not folks, if we cannot drink our once clear blue waters, we are the next to go!

                                                             --Carrie and Mary Dann, Right Livelihood Award acceptance speech