This is one of my favorite butterfly species and I keep finding them almost everywhere I go in Costa Rica. See more of my photos of this beauty in my gallery: Julia Heliconian, Dryas julia.
¡Pura Vida!
Julia Heliconian in Caribe
Julia Heliconian
One of my favorite of the many orange butterflies is this Julia Heliconian, Dryas julia (linked to my gallery with much better photos) and not just because my special needs daughter was named Julianne! 🙂 Though probably related! 🙂
Depending on the light and the individual insect, the bottom of the wings or side views like below can be a beige, light tan or pale orange color rather than the bright orange always on the tops of the wings. See 2 or 3 like that in the gallery. Plus it is easy to confuse the top of the wings with the Juno Longwing I shared the other day, with only a slight design difference, though the bottom of wings are totally different between those two.
¡Pura Vida!
Julia Heliconian
I think this is one of the more beautiful butterflies that I see all over Costa Rica and is native to Central America down through Brazil with some now in South Texas and Florida. And of course the name reminds me of my loving special needs daughter Julianne who died of kidney failure in 1997, one of a series of tragic losses back then.
See some of my other photos of this butterfly in my Julia Heliconian Gallery. Here’s 3 photos of one in my garden on May 24 . . .
