I’m preparing for my first trip this year to the Retezat Mountains, so soon there will be a new post with hopefully a lot of images, some good and perhaps some better.
Until that moment, I’m posting another short collection of butterfly photographs and something extra, shot in the last few weeks and spanning from the end of June until a week ago.
Almost all the images were acquired in some woods in Dambovita county, were a lot of butterfly species were found (some for the first time for me), some which are either rare or usually hard to find. Some of them are also on “near-threatened” list due to habitat lost, and thus I must be very greatful for the immense luck of finding them.
Before I start with the insect images, two shots of the recent event that occurred on the western skies at the end of June: the conjunction of the two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter. The smallest apparent distance occurred at the very end of June, but I was not able to take a single shot in that period, so the following are from the evening of June 23rd. Both shots acquired with a Canon 550D and Canon 18-55mm kit lens and a Canon 100mm Macro lens, from a tripod. In the first image, the Moon is in the upper-left corner, while the two planets are setting behind the tree tops on the right:
And now the butterflies:
Lycaena dispar rutila:
Nymphalis xanhomelas xanhomelas:
Araschnia levana levana (f. prorsa):
Apatura ilia ilia (f. clytie):
Iphiclides podalirius podalirius:
Melanargia galathea satnia:
Celastrina argiolus argiolus:
Melitaea sp:
Thymelicus sylvestris sylvestris:
Thymelicus lineola lineola:
Saturnia pyri (ex ovo):
Zygaena filipendulae (the one with red spots) and Amata phegea (the one with white spots):
Some cetonid beetles, a few of thousands individuals observed this last few weeks:
And some caterpillars:
Max
July 9th, 2015
maximus photography 
Good species diversity in one post. Especially if you say some of them are endangered. Might be a dumb question, but Is the green caterpillar in some sort of changing state? Looks a bit weird 😛
The caterpillar was still keeping it’s shape in this picture for two more days. It did eventually change into a cocoon, and I’m waiting for the big emergence…The other caterpillar, the striped one, of the well known species Papilio machaon, will also change in a few days. Hopefully I’ll be there and watch the event, or at least the emergence of the next generation butterfly.