Butterfly on the Metro

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I saw a man in a snow white shirt this afternoon. He had a big beautiful butterfly sitting on his shoulder. The color contrast was fantastic. For a second I thought it was a huge lapel pin until it flapped its wings. I gasped! Then I thought it was his “pet butterfly” because he didn’t seem to mind it. My excitement caused one other passenger to bring it to his attention. He threw it off while I frantically struggled to get out my camera for the perfect shot pleading with him to let it stay. My selfish human condition was exposed. He probably thought I was crazy.

We all kept our eyes on the butterfly until the train came to a stop. He picked it up. Two times he threw it up and two times it came right back down. It couldn’t fly.

A young girl, around 16 years old came over and held it.



Girl: Oh what a beautiful butterfly. It wants to commit suicide on the tracks.
Her Mum: Butterflies have a shot life span, we need to find a place to put it.
They decided to place it in a tree.


By coincidence the Washington post shared a photo of a similar butterfly on Instagram this evening and so I found out that it’s an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) native to Eastern North America.  Have a great weekend!

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