Sunday 2 July 2023

Flying In

 

2016: Endangered Species (Design - Petteri Mattila)

A hot summer's day and all is right with the world when these two pygmy damselflies fly in. A species that likes swamps and freshwater marshes but is very sensitive to the slightest change in the environment so is a species under threat.

1994: Flora and Fauna

Unlike the Blue-tailed damselfly which only requires ponds or still water and is prolific, no summer passes without seeing lots of these.

Meanwhile a male and female Common Blue butterfly flutter around a Pyramidal orchid

1963: Butterflies (Design - Liu Shuoren)

Something more exotic, the swallowtail Great Jay and a Hainan violet beak. The island of Hainan is sometimes called the Kingdom of Butterflies for the large number of species found there (approx 650)

1957: Insects (Design - HansFischer)

I'll finish with The Magpie moth, those crazy Victorians used to breed it to obtain pattern and colour variations.  The artist has portrayed it with a gooseberry in the background for the Magpie caterpillar likes to feed on gooseberry and current bushes, I'm partial to those  too.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Dragonflies and Butterflies - fly to See It On A Postcard



5 comments:

Mail Adventures said...

The damselflies on the first picture seems like a sci-fi illustration.
I always love the colours on butterflies stamps!

viridian said...

Thank you for sharing such a variety. I esp. like the Alderney stamps.

Marina said...

Great colorful stamps.

Marina said...

I entered the wrong link above 🙁. Here is the correct one.

violet s said...

The pygmy damselfly looks broken with its tail all bent, then I realized it must be for mating with that other fine fellow in the picture.
There are so many beautiful colours in butterflies and the Aldernay illustrations are so lovely and peaceful.