Blooms and Butterflies

Chihuly glassworks beneath a skylight at the Franklin Park
Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

All did not go according to plan. I did not go to Switzerland. But I definitely am going to Puerto Rico in May, so there's that. Anyway, I still have some photos of exotic flora and fauna to show from two recent trips to the Franklin Park Conservatory, which I had never been to before last month despite living within ten miles of the place. For a naturalist, I don't get out much.

The conservatory is basically a giant greenhouse. It's made of glass, and full of plants—over 400 different kinds. It's divided into rooms representing different biomes, so you can step from the Himalayas into a tropical rainforest into a desert and feel the climatic difference in each. They like to have exhibitions. Last month's theme was orchids; right now, it's butterflies.

A Phalaenopsis orchid. Members of this genus
are called moth orchids because some
species resemble moths in flight.

Orchidaceae is one of the two largest families of flowering plants in the world, with about 28,000 currently accepted species. Their numbers are rivaled only by Asteraceae, the aster family. Which family is larger is an ongoing debate because the species data in each are in constant flux. Right now, according to this list, Asteraceae seems to be winning, with 32,913 accepted species. But regardless of which family is actually larger, we can all agree that orchids take the aesthetic cake.

Most orchids are easily identifiable as such by their bilateral symmetry and one highly modified petal called a labellum. Telling an orchid from an aster or a rose is easy, but telling one orchid from another is an entirely different matter. Not only are there thousands of species across hundreds of genera, but they like to hybridize. And I'm not even great with native wildflowers, so forgive me if I can't name most of these.

I think this one is an Oncidium. Common names for this genus include "dancing-lady orchid" and, unfortunately, "golden shower orchid." You do you, Oncidium.

This one might be a Trichocentrum, another genus commonly called dancing-ladies.

As for this one and the rest, I have no idea.

Now, on to the butterflies! I'm a little better at identifying these. During the "Blooms and Butterflies" exhibition, which runs from now until September 17th, newly-emerged butterflies are released in the Pacific Island Water Garden every day at 1 and 3pm.

Before you enter the garden, you can look through a window into the "Butterfly Emergence Chamber," where hundreds of chrysalides hang from shelves like stained glass stalactites. Here are three freshly-eclosed paper kites, Idea leuconoe.

This is where the magic happens: the Pacific Island Water Garden. It is by far the largest atrium, filling the whole south wing of the conservatory.

Here is another view of the room, from a lookout tower within its glass walls.

I watched the 3pm butterfly release. A staff member wheeled a cart laden with containers full of newly-emerged butterflies from the emergence chamber out into the garden. She would remove a butterfly from one of the containers and tell us a little about it before shaking her hand to send it on its maiden flight. Here she is presenting a great yellow Mormon, Papilio lowi.

And here's a closer look at our Mormon friend. I must say, it looks neither particularly yellow, nor particularly Mormon. Searching the almighty Google showed me that in more colorful specimens, the abdomen and those white patches on the hindwings can be yellow. Okay, so that explains the "yellow" part of its name, but why is it a Mormon? Was it discovered by a Mormon? Haha, nope, it's polygamous. I should have known.

The butterflies are quite friendly with my brother...

...and with each other.

Some have translucent wings, like this giant glasswing, Methona confusa.

And some are more than meets the eye. This is a common morpho, Morpho peleides. It's also called the blue morpho, although it shares that name with three other Morpho species. Where's the blue, you ask? On the dorsal side of the wings. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a shot of one flashing the blue, so here's one from Wikimedia Commons:

Photo by Thomas Bresson [license]

The name Morpho is an epithet for Aphrodite. These butterflies surely deserve the name.

In the center of the water garden is this colossal Chihuly glass sculpture, which had several butterflies perched on it, no doubt attracted to the colors.

A Heliconius butterfly on Chihuly glass.

Two color morphs of H. melpomene, the postman.

Most of the butterflies I saw were in the genus Heliconius, commonly known as longwings. This is a fascinating group that has taught us much about mimicry. Two kinds of mimicry, in fact. The first kind is called Batesian mimicry, named after English naturalist Henry Walter Bates. He was studying butterflies in Brazil in 1848 when he noticed that a nontoxic butterfly was mimicking the appearance of a toxic butterfly to gain protection. Heliconian caterpillars eat passion flower vines, which are poisonous, and store the plants' toxins in their tissues. They advertise their distastefulness with bright warning colors (aposematism). Bates found that the tiger longwing, H. ismenius, was being mimicked by a harmless species now known as the mimic tigerwing. This is Batesian mimicry: when a harmless species mimics a harmful one to deter predators.

Because longwings are toxic, they have Batesian mimics. However, they are also mimics themselves. They mimic other members of their genus. The following three images are all different Heliconius species:

H. ismenius, the tiger longwing

This one might be H. numata, but I'm not positive.

H. melpomene, the postman

Notice any similarities? So do predators. When a bird eats one longwing, they learn to avoid everything that looks like it, which means avoiding other longwing species. When two or more species mimic each other to avoid predation, that's called Müllerian mimicry. So, there you have it. Longwings have Batesian mimics, and they are Müllerian  mimics.

But that's not all. One longwing may have several different color morphs. For example, the next three images are all different morphs of H. melpomene, the postman (so-named because it follows the same route, from flower-to-flower, every day, like a postman delivering mail).

These morphs vary geographically. What's amazing is that this species has a co-mimic, H. erato, which mimics its color and pattern almost exactly, and whatever morph it has in a particular region, its mimic will also have!

Nature never ceases to amaze.