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After spending most of the day wandering around the ruins of Copan, Dona and I were ready to get our nature fix. We hopped in a three-wheeled taxi for the short ride to the Enchanted Wings Butterfly House. The first thing we noticed was a huge snake, about 4" in diameter and 12 feet long, near the entrance. It was wooden, but it did make you sit up and take notice.
We got our own private tour, as we were late in the day and the only visitors. That was particularly good since our guide spoke only Spanish. Between the two of us (mostly my Spanish, and totally Dona's knowledge of biology), we could pretty much figure out what we were being told. Our guide explained how most of the butterflies required a specific plant host to reproduce. They lay their eggs on a specific plant, and when the eggs hatch, the caterpillars eat the leaves of that plant. The eggs usually hatch in two or three weeks. We were able to look at quite a few different caterpillars and butterfly eggs; our guide told us which ones they were, but I didn't write it down...
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| Caterpillar |
Then we wandered around the small aviary (butterflyary?). Unfortunately, butterflies are more active in the morning, and we were there in late afternoon going on evening. But we still saw quite a few different species. The Owl butterflies were amazing. When I first saw them feeding on the bananas in the pan on the picture at the far left below, it took my mind quite a few seconds to turn the ones on the right from an Owl into an actual butterfly. All I could see was those two big eyes, and my mind wouldn't let go of that being an owl. If you happen to know what the ones labelled "Aaa," etc., are, please let me know. We had an I.D. card while we were there, but I didn't buy one to bring home.
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| Owl Butterfly | ||
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| My good buddy |
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| Butterfly... Aaa | Butterfly... Bbb | Butterfly... Ccc | Butterfly... Eee | Zebra Heliconian
(Heliconius charithonia) |
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| Tiger Longwing
(Heliconius hecale) |
In addition to piles of butterflies, there were all sorts of really pretty flowers at the butterfly farm. I should know what at least some of these are, especially the one at the far right, because I've seen them a lot, but I don't.
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| Flower... Aaa | Flower... Bbb | Flower... Ccc | Flower... Ddd | Flower... Eee | Flower... Fff |
The next day we crossed back into Guatemala and headed for Quirigua, another Mayan site.
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
