Seen This Week: Butterflies and Fruits

Butterfly camouflaged on the brick windowsill (photo by Mary DeVaughn) Question mark butterfly (photo by Mary DeVaughn) photos by Mary DeVaughn 15 August 2026 Seen this week were … Butterflies: On Friday morning, 14 August, I got a message from Mary DeVaughn: “Just caught some nice camouflage here! A “dead leaf” landed on my windowsill – but then it opened its wings!” It’s a question mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis). Charity Kheshgi and I noticed the same thing at Frick Park last Sunday when a hackberry emperor (Asterocampa celtis) paused on the cobbled path. My cellphone photos are poor quality but you can see that it’s camouflaged when closed and visible when open. Can you see me? Wings closed (photo by Kate St. John) Wings open - hackberry emperor On 9 August we also found a catalpa sphinx moth caterpillar (Ceratomia catalpae) — a catalpa worm — almost exactly a year since we saw them in Frick in August 2025. Click here to see a better photo of this caterpillar + its host…