📍 Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina 🗓 Date: April 21, 2025 🐾 Media: Image 🌿 Species: Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis ssp. astyanax) 📝 Notes: Medium-to-large butterfly often found in woodlands, forest edges, and riparian corridors. Dark, iridescent blue-black wings with subtle structural sheen and a row of orange-red spots along the hindwings. Underside resembles tree bark, providing strong camouflage when at rest.
Despite its name, it is not a true purple swallowtail but a mimic of toxic pipevine swallowtails, gaining protection through resemblance.
Just emerged from chrysalis attatched to lamppost.
🔗 iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/272086740











