The Firefly Forest

Chiricahua Pine White (Neophasia terlooii) butterflies are found in high elevation pine forests in southeastern Arizona and Mexico. To make things confusing, some sources classify these butterflies as Neophasia terlootii (note the added "t"), and they are also commonly called Mexican Pine White or Chiricahua White butterflies. These butterflies are usually found above 6234 feet (1900 m) in elevation and are most common in the fall. It was late October when I observed this male Chiricahua Pine White in Bear Canyon in Arizona's Santa Catalina Mountains.

Male Chiricahua Pine White butterflies are back and white, while the similarly marked females are varying shades of orange instead of white and have broad, black veins on the hindwings. The ventral hindwings of the males only have very slender black veins.

Chiricahua Pine White butterflies are lazy, erratic fliers and are often content to let the breeze blow them around as they occasionally flap their wings. This butterfly was blown out of the trees and ended up on the ground near my feet. I had thought that there was something wrong with him given his weak, aimless flight, but when I approached too closely while photographing him, he mustered enough energy to fly away quite normally.

Male Chiricahua Pine Whites typically spend their days patrolling for females around the larval host trees. The caterpillars live communally in a silken tent and emerge at night to feed on the leaves of Arizona pines (Pinus arizonica), Ponderosa Pines (Pinus ponderosa), and Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii).

A blue moon is the second full moon in any month. This blue moon was over the Big Island of Hawaii on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009.

The blue moon was shining through a pair of Cook Pines (Araucaria columnaris) along the coast. Cook Pines always lean away from the ocean, so you can tell that the shoreline is to their left. Cook Pines are popular landscaping trees here in Hawaii. They are conifers (Division Coniferophyta) like pines, but they are not actually pines because they are in the Araucaria Family (Araucariaceae) instead of the Pine Family (Pinaceae).

Another popular landscaping tree and a wild-growing plant along the coast here is the Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera). These Coconut Palms were lit for a New Year's Eve party at a nearby oceanfront house.

Coconut Palms are "canoe plants", useful plants that were originally brought here to Hawaii by the ancient Polynesians. The large coconuts contain edible coconut milk and coconut meat, so these trees are both attractive and a source of food.