One of my favorite wild flowers is the Basket Flower, Centaurea americana. It grows in many places across Texas. I love the delicate petals of this flower and their shades of lavender. Basket flowers are members of the Asteraceae family and their flowers are really compound flowers where each petal is associated with a single tiny flower within the composite flower head. They get their name from the phyllaries or bracts that surround the base of the flower head to form a cup of interwoven spines that resemble a basket. They bloom from May till August each year.

The butterfly nectaring on the Basket Flower is an Orange Skipperling, Copaeodes aurantiaca in the family Hesperiidae, the skipper butterflies. Skippers like moist areas along the margins of rivers and streams. This stand of Basket Flowers was beside a bridge over a small stream in West Texas at the edge of the caprock.

In the last image, you can see the proboscis of the skipperling probing the flowerlets for nectar. I am literally amazed at how these tiny creatures unfurl these structures and guide them into the multitude of tiny flowers on a plant like the Basket Flower. This kind of behavior goes on all around us largely unnoticed or appreciated by our species. These images remind me what a complex world we live in and give me a sense of wonder about something as simple as a butterfly and a flower.

For more information on these two species, you can visit the Butterflies and Moths website and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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The Meridian Skipper, Erynnis meridianus, is unrolling his proboscis in preparation for gathering nectar from the Dakota Vervain flowers he is on. Visible here are the transparent spots on a uniform brown colored underside of the wings.

The Meridian Skipper is a member of the Hesperiidae or Skipper family of butterflies. This specimen is busily nectaring from a Dakota Vervain flower. I am always amazed at the way these tiny beings are able to locate and probe complex flower parts with their “long straw”.

This image shows a Meridian Skipper rolling up his proboscis in preparation for moving to another flower. His species belongs to the subfamily Pyrginae which are the Open-Winged Skippers. This individual has his wings partially open which is acceptable for membership in this group. It is also handy to be able to see the wing markings and colors which help identify this little fella. Note the white “fringe” on the wing margins.

In this final image, you can see the proboscis almost completely coiled for storage prior to flight. What an incredible, complex appendage in such “simple” creatures.

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A Black Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polixenes) nectaring on a Basket Flower (Centaurea americana).  One of the largest butterflies that we see in Texas. Similar in size to the Monarch. The wings of the females have blue bands of color on them while the upper surface of the male wings will lack this band. Many species are sexually dimorphic, which is a fancy way of saying the sexes look different from one another in some way(s). I am continually amazed at the way they use their proboscis to find the tiniest florets on a compound flower like Centaurea and other Asteracea family members.

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Saw this pretty butterfly a while ago when I still had access to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. I am continually amazed at the way butterflies are able to maneuver their proboscis into the tiniest of flowers.

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