Hey, neat! Was just out in the garden, and saw one of these on my lantana!

http://www.blitzworld.com/butterflies/images/Black_swallowtail_0062.jpg

It’s a huge butterfly, nearly the size of my hand.

Edit: And a few minutes, later, on the same lantana, a tiger swallowtail, also enormous and…defective. A good chunk of his right side lower wing, including the swallowtail bit was missing. This did not seem to be slowing him up much–he took to the air several times, circling the yard, before returning to the lantana.

It would be wrong to be happy to see an injured butterfly, and yet, I can’t escape the feeling of normalcy that the sight of defective-but-functioning wildlife evokes in me.