Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis). With a wingspan of three to three and a half inches. Looking quite handsome with its iridescent blue with tiny orange spots on the dorsal (top) side of its wings. At this point I have to mention that this butterfly is on Butterfly Bush. BUT this plant is NOT in any of my gardens. As an invasive it will take over places where native plants could be growing and benefitting our natural world.

It’s the great impersonator. The Red-spotted Purple butterfly mimics the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly. And not stopping at that, the larvae quite convincingly mimics bird droppings.

Preferred host plants of the Red-spotted Purple are a wide variety of trees and shrubs including birches, aspens, wild cherries and many species of the willow family. The adults feed on an occasional flower, as well as damp soil and puddles, carrion, dung and rotting fruit. One of those butterflies.