This year has been full of question marks as our lives have been turned upside down by the pandemic and so many of those questions have gone unanswered. Somehow, then, it seemed appropriate that I spotted this Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) on Tuesday when I was exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
At this time of the year, when the leaves are turning brown and falling to the ground, this butterfly blends in well with its surroundings. This butterfly, however, did not seem interested in blending in and chose instead a rocky surface to help highlight the irregular shape of its wings. Normally Question Marks are more opaque in their brown coloration, but the sun was illuminating the wings from behind and gave us a hint of the beautiful orange interior and distinctive markings of this butterfly—I love it when internal beauty shines through.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
So nice with that backlight !
Beautiful, Mike!
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Good that it chose those rocks, Mike. Otherwise you might never have found it. It is pretty.
So cool! Love the color!
“I love it when internal beauty shines through.” You are a true poet at heart, Mike. 🙂
Thanks, Eliza. Perhaps more a philosopher than a poet, but as I was writing the posting this morning, that thought came to mind as I was talking about backlighting and it seemed to be a good way to end the posting.
Difficult lighting conditions, to be sure, but you used them to admirable advantage. This study in stark contrast works really well, and it’s so cool that you can see the upper markings on the wings through their membranes, superimposed on those of the lower wings.
Thanks, Gary. You’ve explained much better than I could what the light shining through allows the viewer to see.
And the darkness can not put out the light!!
Amen.
That’s a good segue from “This year has been full of question marks…” to the similarly named butterfly.
🙂 I try to avoid politics, but every now and then I indirectly insert my thoughts into my postings.
I was going to mention the questions we are dealing with this year but see that you mentioned it to Steve above. I do like the backlighting allowing us to see the “framework” of the wings.
[…] is a curved line and a dot, it is a Question Mark butterfly. (Check out my September 2020 posting Question Mark in September if you are interested in comparing the two sets of […]
The backlighting is just beautiful here!!