nemsis

Today is a collection post:

the song:

idk if anyone gives a Single fuck but i’m a butterflies enjoyer and i’m fairly positive this is a female plain tiger/ african monarch butterfly (danaus chrysippus) :]

i was originally thinking a male monarch (thinner veins that could be blown out from the contrast, black hind wing spots that could’ve remained) and from the looks of it sometimes monarch butterflies have bigger White Spots on their forewings? but not usually. but they also have a black band at the bottoms of their top wings, and they also have black bodies, both of which i very much think would have come through, the body in the gifs above are nearly completely missing bc of the contrast

then i thought a female common diadem, which maybe ! but the sort of lace-y pattern on the edges of the wings looked like they wouldn’t be so stark/mostly black in this contrast, and again, the body is dark (male common diadem butterflies look Entirely different from females so it is not even a consideration) the black spots on the top side of the female's hind wings looks to be too far up for the more relaxed position of the butterfly in the gif, I think if it were a common diadem those spots would be hidden in that pose. they also have prominent labial palps that look to be absent from the butterfly in the gif

plain tigers look rather similar to the female common diadem, but plain tigers have the least amount of sexual dimorphism among these butterflies listed previously, they look nearly identical but ! males have an additional black spot on the hind wing (similar placement of a male monarch, they’re scent glands) which the one in the gif looks to be missing ! they also ! have orange abdomen that I would say pretty well match their wings and could easily be blown out in the black/white contrast !