Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Butterflies and Moths

While at Key West, I visited the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory there.  If you are ever out there, I highly recommend it. It's really cool, and if you are into bugs at all, you will find yourself spending hours there.

Here are a bunch of butterfly and moth pictures taken while inside the butterfly greenhouse.  Additionally, I'm including some pictures of butterflies taken in the wild.

Update: I contacted the nice people at the conservatory, and they helped me identify a few of the ones that I wasn't sure about.  Thanks!

Emerald Swallowtail (Papilio palinurus)

Golden Hairstreak (Habrodais grunus)

Comet Moth (Argema Mittrei)

Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae)

Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas Bolina)

Paper Kite (Idea leuconoe)

Great Orange Tip (Hebomoia Glaucippe)

Peleides Blue Morpho (Morpho peleides)

Red Postman (Heliconius Erato Notabilis)

Red Postman (Heliconius Erato Cyrbia)

Red Postman (Heliconius Erato)

Tailed Jay (Graphium Agamemnon)

Sapho Longwing (Heliconius Sapho)

Tiger Longwing (Heliconius hecale)

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae)

Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius)

Galapagos Blue Butterfly (Leptotes parrhasioides)

Cydno Longwing (Heliconius Cydno)
Giant Owl Butterfly from Asia
Sapho Longwing (Heliconius Sapho)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Diving and Snorkeling: Florida Keys

I recently went diving and snorkeling in the Florida Keys -- one dive at the Benwood wreck site, one dive at Molasses Reef, and some snorkeling off the shores of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park.  Fort Jefferson was pretty far away and required a two and a half hour ferry boat ride from Key West to get there.  Both the dive sites were located about half an hour from Key Largo.

I went through all my underwater pictures, and I cropped out all the different fish species that were encountered.  Some of the photos are blurry and quite a few don't have the best color as I'm quite new to underwater photography.  Anyway, here are all the fish pictures along with my identifications and a few non-fish species.  There were two that I wasn't able to identify, but I got some help from a couple people on a Reef discussion board.

Updated: I made a few corrections after a helpful person from reef.org pointed out some identification mistakes.

Caesar Grunts and not Smallmouth Grunts - black tails
Longspine Squirrelfish and not Squirrelfish - white tips on dorsal spines
Sand Diver and not Inshore Lizardfish - dark spot on gill plate


Anchovies (Engraulidae)

Atlantic Blue Tang - Juvenile (Acanthurus coeruleus)

Atlantic Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus)

Atlantic Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus)

Atlantic Porkfish - Juvenile (Anisotremus virginicus)

Beaugregory - Juvenile (Stegastes leucostictus)

Atlantic Spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber)

Bermuda Chub (Kyphosus sectatrix)

Black Grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci)

Blue Striped Grunts (Haemulon sciurus)

Bicolor Damselfish (Stegastes partitus)

Bluehead - Initial Phase (Thalassoma bifasciatum)

Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea)

Doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus)

French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)

Dog Snapper (Lutjanus jocu)

Goatfish (Mulloidichthys martinicus)

Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda)

Gray Snapper (Lutjanus griseus)

Harlequin Bass (Serranus tigrinus)

Sand Diver (Synodus intermedius)

Mahogany Snapper (Lutjanus mahogoni)

Ocean Surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus)

Queen Parrotfish (Scarus vetula)

Slippery Dick - Juvenile (Halichoeres bivittatus)

Slippery Dick - Intermediate Phase (Halichoeres bivittatus)

Sergeant Major (Abudefduf saxatilis)

Caesar Grunts (Haemulon carbonarium) 

Stoplight Parrotfish - Initial Phase (Sparisoma viride)

Longspine Squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus)

Striped Parrotfish - Initial Phase (Scarus iserti)

Redband Parrotfish - Initial Phase (Sparisoma aurofrenatum)

Yellowtail Damselfish (Chrysiptera parasema)

Yellowtail Snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus)

Trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus)

Stoplight Parrotfish - Juvenile (Sparisoma viride)

Common Sea Fan (Gorgonia ventalina)

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