Butterflies at the Tucson Botanical Garden

We were sweating like nobody's business, to quote Daddooooo.  It was cool for Tucson, and Scarlett and I were wearing sweaters.  They proved to be a big mistake.  Butterflies like it hot and humid. 

We humans... not so much. 

Those huge glossy green leaves are not indigenous to our arid climate.  They were very happy in the Butterfly Magic exhibit, though.

There were weird vines 

and strange leaves 

and fluttering among the greenery and the sunshine were butterflies. 

There were these teeny ones which barely alit long enough to be photographed,

but which fluttered all around us, tempting me to try to capture them in pixels. 

There were yellow ones, getting up close and personal with one another.

There was lots of eating going on.

  

A slow approach

with wings opening as they got closer to the food source. 

This smaller orange fella was fluttering madly, taking a more pro-active approach, 

before settling in for a drink. 

Others were content to rest on an outstretched arm.

Some were nearly camouflaged in the food dishes, preferring not to work that hard for their supper.

Camouflage like this works in the desert; I'm not sure how effective it was this morning on this leaf

And then there were some flaunting their gorgeous wings, not seeking to hide at all..

I decided that they knew they were gorgeous.

They posed as well as FlapJilly.

(I had to throw this in.... I'm in withdrawal...)

There was also a colorful array of fauna.

Yes, these are real frogs.

You can see that this one moved while I was photographing him.

The yellow one was almost as shy as the neon green one which refused to do more than poke his head out from between two stones. 

Just in case you don't believe me, here is another blue Dart Frog moving from rock 

to gravel. 

They looked like enamel figurines, but they are the source of venom for aboriginal tribes' poison darts.

Somehow, after the butterflies and the frogs, the fish seemed anticlimactic.

The exhibit is open through May, if you're in the area.