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I was at a butterfly education exhibition program on Saturday sponsored by one of our local garden centers. They were educating children and gardeners on our local butterflies and the types of plants to attract and nurture butterflies. They had brought in the two most populous butterflies here in Northern Illinois which are Painted Ladies and Monarchs. "The Cynthia group of colorful butterflies, commonly called Painted Ladies, comprises a subgenus of the genus Vanessa in the Family Nymphalidae. They are well known throughout most of the world."(Wikipedia) The tent was filled with plants and flowers the butterflies like along with rotting watermelon on trays and rotting tangerines as well. They are also partial to blue Gatorade - why blue no one could tell me - but there were dishes of blue Gatorade soaked sponges around for the butterflies to drink from. The best part was that on Sunday at 3:00pm, when the exhibit ended, the tents walls are opened and all the hundreds of butterflies are released back into the wild. This is the first of my posts from the butterfly tent and only the second time I have photographed butterflies.