Free March 2011 Butterfly Picture Calendar Download

Just wanted to let everyone know to keep up to date with this free March 2011 Calendar with a picture of a Longwing butterfly, identifying the parts of the head and thorax. Enjoy.

 

Stop by the shop for the most beautiful framed butterfly art and display sets online. 

Blue Morpho Butterfly Collections, create your own set!

This is a simple chart of blue morpho butterflies from Ben the Butterfly Guy, to sell framed butterfly art displays in customizable sets where you can choose, mix and match and charge discounted prices for my clients. This is the first in several customizable charts that I will be debuting as the week progresses.

D SETS - 6.25” x 7.25”

A1 – $74 – M. RHETENOR HELENA
A2 – $44 – M. DIDIUS
A3 – $32 – C. MEMNON (OWL EYES)
A4 – $32 – C. MEMNON (OWL EYES)
A5 – $32 – M. DEIDAMIA (ACHILLES)
B1 – $64 – M. RHETENOR CACICA
B2 – $32 – M. DEIDAMIA (ACHILLES)
B3 – $64 – M. RHETENOR CACICA
B4 – $64 – M. RHETENOR CACICA
B5 – $44 – M. DIDIUS
C1 – $44 – M. THESEUS (WHITE MORPHO)
C2 – $44 – M. THESEUS (WHITE MORPHO)
C3 – $74 – M. RHETENOR HELENA
C4 – $44 – M. THESEUS (WHITE MORPHO)

So, I've decided to switch the style up a bit when it came to my methods of selling framed butterfly art. Since the beginning I've wanted to give people the option of mixing and matching their own butterfly sets and collections and have recently thought of a way that might work. More to come...

Exotic Valentine's Day Red Butterfly, the rare Anaea Siderone Marthesia

This rare red butterfly is the perfect Valentine's Day gift, the exotic red butterfly Anaea siderone marthesia.

A great opportunity to get that special, unique Valentine's day gift.

The Anaea siderone marthesia belongs to the Anaea tribe of Nymphalidae butterflies. This is a rather large tribe of butterflies, that range in all colors and patterns. These are some of the most interesting communities of Neoptropical butterflies around.

ALWAYS FREE SHIPPING IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.

This red butterfly mounted and framed in a black, double pane glass, wood frame, 6.5" x 5.5" with glass on the front and back sides. The glass is sealed onto the wood with silicone sealant along the inside grooves.

Ben the Butterfly Guy online: Real Framed Butterflies and Butterfly Art

Blog: Butterfly facts and information

Visit our Etsy Store Framed Butterfly Art on Etsy

Visit our Ebay Store: Real Framed Butterfly

*All frames are hand crafted and the quality and characteristics are much better then the common, one-sided Riker Mounts. One of the great benefits of double pane glass framing is that you can see the front and back sides of the mounted butterflies. In most cases involving Neotropical butterflies the front and back sides of the wings are distinctly different. The back many times displays a species distinct form of self defense.*

Every butterfly from Ben the Butterfly Guy comes from butterfly farms throughout the Eastern region of Peru. I personally visit each farm to assure their operations are respectable and revise documentation to make sure each butterfly farm is legally permitted to operate by Peruvian law. All butterflies here are classified non-endangered by the international CITES listings as reviewed by both the Ministry of Agriculture from Peru and U.S. Fish and Wildlife in the States. Copies of documentation and clearance are available upon request for your assurance and peace of mind.

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The Love story of Psyche and Cupid: Introduction and Cupid falls in love

Canova, Antonio. Cupid and Psyche contemplating a butterfly (1796-1800)

First let me begin by briefly mentioning what butterflies have to do with this amazing love story. Psyche is the Greek word for soul, as in the embodiment of the breath that gives us life, and that very breath leaving us when we die. Old Greeks and Romans saw the soul as a butterfly winged spirit that leaves us when we die.  Understanding this, Psyche was represented with butterfly wings, as an embodiment of what gives a life. This is a tale of an impossible love between God and mortal with a homicidal mother-in-law that comes up with impossible tasks for Psyche to prove her love. Tasks like separating the each grain by type in a huge room full large baskets of mixed grains, or fetch wool from killer golden sheep or travel to and from the underworld.

The Tale of Psyche and Eros (Cupid) was first heard in the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety, Metamorphoses by Lucias Apuleius. Written around 170AD, this tale was later renamed, The Golden Ass, by St. Augustine. This novel is one of the most important pieces of literature to date, marking an important milestone in the awakening of the human conscious and spirit. The Tale of Psyche and Love has been attributed to the waking and liberation of the feminine mind. The fact that this was written by such an educated and revered male figure of that time marked a new age to female self-awareness and responsibility to women, separating from attachment and accountability to man and God.

Lucius and Charite if I'm not mistaken

The actual Tale itself is a story inside a story where it is recited as an old wives tale being told by an elderly woman that belongs to a band of thieves. Beginning in Book 4 and continuing throughout all book 5, Lucius, after having accidently turned himself into a donkey, is stolen and housed with Charite, the wife to a wealthy man and the victim of a kidnapping-ransom scheme. In order to comfort Charite’s crying, the elderly women begins to tell them a most incredible story of love that defies the confines of mortality. This was the story she told Lucius and Charite…

Part 1:

There once was a Greek King and Queen blessed with three beautiful daughters. Of all three, the most beautiful by far was the youngest, Psyche, whose beauty was so great that it was worshipped and revered by man. Even Apollo attributed her beauty was too great for mortals, and the impoverished language of the humans could come up with no word to give justice to her beauty. This created a great jealousy in Venus, the Goddess the love and beauty was not about to take this sacrilegious slap in the face. With the help of her son Cupid, she set up a mischievous plot to curse Psyche so that despite her beauty, she would never marry a human suitor.

Cupid admiring Psyches beautiful before pricking himself with his own arrows

The plan was to dab some water from a bitter fountain in Venus garden, onto Psyche’s lips and then scratch her with one of Cupid’s arrows, this was the trick to the spell. Cupid turns himself invisible (as he often did to deal with humans) and climbs into Psyche’s room with his arrow and water ready. He puts the bitter water on her lips, but he was totally unprepared for what came next. She is startled and wakes up looking directly into Cupid’s eyes, despite being invisible, and this in turn startles Cupid so much that he accidentally pricks himself with his own arrow. He falls madly in love with her and leaves her there, sickly longing for her but sticking to Venus plan.

The curse that fell upon Psyche was brought to an oracle of Apollo to foresee anything positive but were met with the same . The oracle told them that the only suitor that would take her is a horrible beast, detestable by God and mortal both. They were to carry out the wedding procession to a cliff where the King and Queen and all the procession was to leave her there alone so this horrible monster would take her as his wife. Knowing this, Cupid talks to Zephyr, the caretaker of the winds and asks him he could carry Psyche to his home in a valley made for the Gods.

The solemn procession of Psyche's marriage

As planned, Psyche was left on the mountainside by herself and just as she is about to jump off the cliff, Zephyr whisks her away in the wind to a beautiful home waiting for her in the valley. Her new home was a beautiful mansion with golden pillars that held up the high domed ceilings, rooms dedicated to natural beauty and gardens only a God could fully appreciate. Psyche was met by a fascinating yet still calm voice that whispered to her that everything there is for hers. As if that wasn’t enough, they also tell her that her secret husband come home that evening and consummate their marriage. Talk about intense, and that is where I will end Part 1 of one of the greatest stories ever told.

In part 2, I’ll tell the obvious, what happened that night, their painful separation and the impossible tasks Psyche has to complete if she ever hopes to be with the love of her life.