This ink and watercolor piece is the understated Hamadryas Feronia, or Variable Cracker Butterfly. It gets its name from a distinctive cracking sound it makes to communicate with other members of its species. With a wing span only the width of your palm, it packs sooo much detail into a small surface area! Also pictured is the dalechampia triphylla vine which is the primary food source for the butterfly’s larvae, and crucial to its survival. 
 
This drawing is of a specimen in the renowned James May collection in Colorado, caught in Paraguay in 1926. If you aren’t familiar with the May Natural History Museum, it houses one of the largest private bug collections in the world. All were collected and preserved by a single individual who spent nearly all his life traveling and collecting bugs from, primarily, the topics. Some of the bugs are very rare, including a number that are now critically endangered or extinct. The museum has approx. 7000 specimens on permanent view, though according to the docent, less than 10% of the total collection is on display.
 
This giclée print is printed on archival Epson Premium Watercolor paper. The drawing was meticulously created using layers of tiny ink dots and watercolor layers. It represents more than 16 hours of careful work, and the print is virtually indistinguishable from the original!