Endangered
Lepidoptera Week 2
These are the largest butterfly in the western hemisphere. Their wingspan can be 6 inches or more! Males are territorial and will compete with each other for 20 minutes or so, often damaging their wings in the engagements. The butterflies tend to be active from 9am-2pm. They used to be poached by collectors and considering their large size that is not unexpected. Thankfully though, that does not seem to be happening much anymore. Their current threat is mainly habitat destruction.
I'm sorry, I have to cut this short. My back has been bothering me for 2 days, enough that I had to stay flat on a heating pad most of the day. I even took a break at one point just to get a hug (gentle one) because otherwise I was going to have a bit of a breakdown and start crying due to the pain. I did want to say that while I try desperately to make each animal be an obvious individual, I've realized it is more difficult to come up with unique poses and show the personality with insects and fish than it is with birds and mammals. Showing personality with corals is pretty much not happening, which is why I don't paint as much of them. I am trying already to decide what next week will be. At the moment I'm leaning toward hooved animals (did you know hoofed and hooved are both correct, and apparently hooved is becoming more common?).