Wandering in the yard I saw a butterfly with an orange head, a startlingly blue body, and black wings held flat on the body when at rest. It was flying rapidly and looking for flowers to drink from. Atypically for a butterflies, it was not moving erratically, not fluttering, but moving in almost straight lines but rapidly. Can one say a butterfly is making a "bee line" for flowers? Clicking on photos enlarges them.
Thanks Google! It's a moth, not a butterfly even though it flies in the daytime. As a caterpillar it feeds on sedges - which I have in abundance. ("Grasses are flat; Sedges have edges; rushes are round - " as Dr. Brown my Botany professor said.) Ctenucha also apparently drinks nectar from a wide variety of flowers; here it's partaking of nectar from a white clover.
Take a glance at the website below. (You might have to copy and paste into a browser but it's worth doing.) It's a very pretty diurnal moth.
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Ctenucha-virginica
Yarrow, Coreopsis, Ratibida
Larkspur buds, Hydrangea, Digitalis ambigua,
Penstemon, Stachys
Larkspur, Digitalis ambigua, Hydrangea,
Penstemon, Stachys, Yarrow
Clematis Jackmanii
Monarda (Bee Balm, Bergamot) and white clover
Bluebird
Evening Sky
Morning Moon
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