Butterfly Of Doom

The Vanessa atalanta , or Red Admiral butterfly, was called the "butterfly of doom," says Ceridwen's blip last fall of another one, on her side of the pond. They were very plentiful during 1881, the year Tsar Alexander II was assassinated --and the plot thickens from there!.

As for me, I had to look it up after I decided that this would be my blip. The well-spotted being sits on a white-flowering Buddleja davidii or butterfly bush, and the tracks of leaf-borers can be seen on the plant underneath it.

But all I knew, taking the picture beside my ladder & can of paint, and before I consulted the Linnaeus of Blip, all I thought was that it was so nice of this butterfly to sit still long enough for me to collect its picture!