Iguazu Falls Butterflies – Surrounded by butterflies

Iguazu Falls Butterflies, the Invasion of Argentina!

The whole time we were at at Iguazu Falls we were surrounded by butterflies. They fly in the air alongside the train. When you see the Iguazu Falls butterflies from a distance, you’d swear it was yellow autumn leaves fluttering to the ground and swirling everywhere – but it’s not.  It’s the Iguazu Falls butterflies!

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What a wonderful thing – to be surrounded by butterflies. That is ‘mariposas’ in Spanish.
Look around. There are cocoons on trees.

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The butterflies at Iguzu Falls gather in and around puddles of water on the ground to drink. They land on you to get at the perspiration on your skin – for the salt. They are all over the place.

Look closely at this shot on the ground.  You’ll see three different types of butterflies that were in one puddle. The yellow and black ones are similar to our tiger swallowtails.  But actually they are different.  I don’t know their official name. There are also smaller yellow ones and some bright green ones in this photo too.

One amazing thing about the Iguazu Falls butterflies is the incredible profusion. In the morning they are on fences, trees, plants.  There are an amazing variety of different types. As the sun shines, their wings dry.  Then they start to fly about.  You will literally see dozens at one time.

Previously, we have seen fantastic butterflies in other places, notably on Aruba.  There, they have a farm for butterflies.  Of course you may find this a little disconcerting – farming them to put into shadow boxes for gifts.  However the average butterfly in the wild lives only 3-4 weeks.  So they actually are only farming, or harvesting to sell, the ones that have passed away.

Another interesting thing about the butterflies at the farm in Aruba is that they feed them oranges and other fruits.  When the fruit sits out for a while, the juice ferments, and it seems that they get drunk on the nectar.

More Iguazu Falls butterflies – great pictures from LeggyPeggy

And another web site with an exhaustive list and pictures of Iguazu Falls butterflies: Raymond Cannon Butterflies at Iguazu Falls.

Iguazu Falls Butterflies – Carol and JB Travel to Argentina