Of the 8 Snouts in tropical America, the American Snout is the only Snout that occurs regularly in the US, mainly along the border with Mexico, but it has been reported as far north as Southern Canada. They go through periodic explosions, keyed to the cycle of drought and wet in the Southwest and southern Texas. I don’t know if this was an explosion year, but there were certainly Snouts everywhere in the Rio Grande Valley in the highest numbers I have seen in my 10 years of visiting there in November. I am talking about 6 of every 10 butterflies you looked at were Snouts. 🙂

Embarrassment! This is not an American Snout at all. I was photographing Snouts in the Bush below and just assumed this was the underside. It is in fact a Bordered Patch. Which of course has its own interesting story. Paint my face red. 🙁

This shot is from just after the National Butterfly Center gardens opened for the day at 8 AM…before the sun crept up over the sheltering belt of tall trees to the south-east to warm and dry the vegetation. If you look closely you will see that the butterfly is still covered with dew…tiny drops of water like jewels…the bling from my title. I took a lot of pictures of Bordered Patches this trip, and this is my favorite.

Canon SX50HS in Program with -1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.