Lepidoptera - a small sampling

Members of the order Lepidoptera, better known as butterflies, are in abundance along with all the summer flowers.  In addition to providing a colorful display in meadows and gardens, they are a delight to watch...and notoriously difficult to photograph!  One needs much patience and just plain luck.

One of the neighbors on our street has a glorious garden filled with insect-attracting flowers.  I've walked down there on a few occasions and was lucky enough to capture some images of these attractive and benevolent insects.

Where possible, I've tried to identify the species.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Blazing Star flower

Least Skipper feeds on a coneflower

Skippers are in their own family, and are much smaller than most butterflies.

Black Swallowtail

Dun Skipper

Sharing

Two skippers, possibly the same species, are together on the same flower for just a moment.