I found this little guy outside the front door at my job....

[TK421]

Yeah, it's a little blurry, but what the hell...it's a camera phone. I took him ( or her ) inside my office and kept it on top of a piece of scrap paper. I don't know what possessed me to pick this thing up off the ground and take a picture of it, but it kind of stuck out like a sore thumb on top of a red brick pavement. I let it out the back door later on, but it died. Its left wing was damaged from something, but I was amazed at the color of this thing. Any butterfly aficionados out there who could tell me what this was? I've never seen a design like this before.


Edited to add: I'm trying to get this picture enlarged at the moment....

[AlienGirl]

1. Tiger swallowtail

Xen tried to save one a couple weeks ago, but it died too. :-( They like beer a lot and drink from puddles on pavement.

Tucker

[TK421]

2. Well if I knew the thing liked beer I would have taken it back to my

apartment....it would have lived forever there!

[AlienGirl]

4. They only live a few weeks, in the best case

They will also land on fresh dung to such out any nutrients that remain, so I'd advise not sharing the glass...

Tucker

[TK421]

3. Here's a bigger picture, I hope ( God, I fucking HATE computers )

http://us.f502.mail.yahoo.com/y5/s/viewphoto?get=previewimg&folderid=%2540S%2540Search&mid=1_22_0_0_0_ADMmvs4AASO6RMUB5QXZfUjZM10&partid=1

[pitohui]

5. probably eastern tiger swallowtail

i can't actually see your big picture but the small picture plus the location in your profile suggests it is eastern tiger swallowtail

once transformed into butterflies, their days are numbered, this is true of almost all butterflies except the monarch which can live several months as a butterfly

there was nothing you could do to save it, basically in that form they fuck and lay eggs and die