Hackberry Emperor
In the last few days hundreds, if not thousands, of Hackberry Emperor butterflies have emerged and flutter around. It feels like in these TV ads that try to sell you everything with a tropical touch. Well, we have plenty of the larval host plants around here, the hackberry tree. It is not uncommon to see many of these butterfies at this time of the season but these are by far the highest numbers we have seen since we live here above the Little Maquoketa River Valley near the Mississippi. The males land on everything that is bright, sunny spots or just bright objects, and await the females. They don’t hesitate to land on your skin and I read that they readily land on people to drink sweat for salt.
An event like that is a perfect reason to get the old, well trusted SIGMA 150/f2.8 macro lens out of the bag. It doesn’t focus very fast in comparison to more modern lenses, but if it locks on, the sharpness is absolutely wonderful.