selfaware soup

Esther Weidauer

Week of Butterflies

Visiting beautiful little friends

2026-04-18

Butterflies

This week I went to Alaris Butterfly Park again. It has been several years since I was last there. It’s a greenhouse at the edge of Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, about two hours from Berlin by train.

It’s full various butterfly species that fly around freely inside where they are easily observable, an amazing photo opportunity. And this time I brought a proper macro lens. All of these are shot on a Canon 5DS and a Canon 100mm/2.8 Macro USM. Here’s a selection of my favorites:

Leopard lacewing (Cethosia cyane)
leopard lacewing (Cethosia cyane) butterfly hanging onto an orange slice that's crawling with fruit flies, bright orange wings with black and white markings, wings are half-closed

Malachite (Siproeta stelenes)
Malachite (Siproeta stelenes) butterfly with white fuzzy body and orange/green wings, underside visible

another Malachite, sitting on half an orange, wings at 45 degrees, mostly showing underside

Cream-spotted tigerwing (Tithorea tarricina)
cream-spotted tigerwing (Tithorea tarricina) black/orange butterfly with white dots on the black parts of the wings

another cream-spotted tigerwing, hanging off the side of an orange half

Common banner (Epiphile adrasta)
common banner (Epiphile adrasta) sitting on a half orange, brown butterlfy with black and white marking in the topside of the wings, shot from the side, showing its curled up proboscis (drinking straw type appendage)

White-spotted prepona (Archaeoprepona amphimachus)
white-spotted prepona butterly (Archaeoprepona amphimachus), wings closed, underside is light beige, extreme close-up photo showing its compound eyes what have a dotted pattern, its fluffy body, and its unrolled proboscis drinking juice from an orange slice

Pale owl (Caligo memnon)
Pale owl (Caligo memnon) butterfly, wings closed, sitting on a vertical tree branch, wings are brown and textured each with a large dark spot that has yellow rings, evoking owl eyes

Tailed Jay (Graphium agamemnon)
tailed jay (Graphium agamemnon) butterfly on an orange slice, black with green dots all over its wings, wings are spread out, top side visible

another tailed jay butterfly, with wings closed. the underside is more pink and black but the green markings show through

Paper kite (Idea leuconoe)
paper kite butterfly (Idea leuconoe), translucent wings with black marking, closed. it has a drop of nectar on its proboscis

Great mormon (Papilio memnon)
great Mormon (Papilio memnon) butterfly on a read rose, large black wings with a white lower part and orange markings near the body

two Great Mormon butterflies, one (with orange markings) sitting on a leaf with wings spread, the other (just black and white) hovering behind, wings motions-blurred

Menelaus blue morpho (Morpho menelaus)
Menelaus blue morpho (Morpho menelaus) butterfly, large wings spread out, top side visible, showing a bright blue with a black rim

Later in the season they also have other species that need more time to hatch, in particular the absolutely enormous Atlas moth. Those weren’t ready this week yet.

Studying

As of last week I’m done with exams for my psychology degree. Now I just need to actually write my bachelor’s thesis and finish an internship. Both will happen over the next few months and by October 2026 I should be actually done.

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