Julia-Shaped Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago

Here's a Julia butterfly.

As you might have gathered from this shaky photograph, I wasn't able to get a very good photograph of one, partly because I didn't see many, and partly because they move around so quickly.

I saw a few in Guatemala also, around Tikal, but I wasn't even able to get a poor photograph because they wouldn't stay still.

Julia butterfly with wings open

Postman butterfly on a spray of flowers with wings closed

This is a Postman butterfly.

The ones I saw moved around about as much as the Julias, but the difference was that I saw enough to allow me to eventually get some photographs of them.


The ones you see here were all in the Buccoo lagoon area, which was absolutely prime territory for birds, butterflies, dragonflies and spiders.

I was driving along and saw a butterfly.   I then spent the next 30 or 40 minutes in one small area, taking some of the photos you see here.

Postman butterfly with wings closed

This was the hardest shot for me to get.   Mostly they had their wings closed, or rhythmically opened and closed them.


This was the easiest butterfly on this page for me to photograph.

It flew past me on a trail at Trinidad's Point a Pierre Wildfowl Sanctuary, and landed on a leaf as you see it here.

It then gave me plenty of opportunity to take as many shots as I wanted!   If only all butterflies were this obliging!

attractive black butterfly with yellow and red markings