Malachite

Erika wondered what Karen Kearny and I were stalking in the restaurant parking lot puddle (across the highway from the dragonlet cattle pond). You never know on a wildlife tour such as ours. Turns out to be a Malachite (Siproeta stelenes), a butterfly found from Brazil, through Central America and into the southernmost United States. This insect is also found in southern Florida, presumably migrating there from Cuba or Hispanola in the 1960s. In Florida, Malachites inhabit citrus orchards; in Central America they fly in forests.