
Enough with the Dead Butterflies (2017) - dorkwood
https://emilydamstra.com/news/please-enough-dead-butterflies/
======
kick
This is one of the most interesting articles I've read this year: the subject
matter is really intriguing (I had never thought about this being the reason
butterflies in pictures look so clinical and saddening, but it completely
makes sense!), and almost more intriguing is that the author is passionate
enough about this to write such a wonderfully extensive article about it.

~~~
wallflower
> This is one of the most interesting articles I've read this year

Just in case you missed it, have you read this?

[https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-
du...](https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-dust)

~~~
kick
I hadn't; this was really fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

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SeanLuke
Recently Behringer, a musician's audio equipment manufacturer, teased a clone
of the Wasp, a historic synthesizer. They copied the design language down to
the original wasp icon as can be seen in this image.

[https://media.sweetwater.com/api/i/q-82__ha-
fc89e45000b982eb...](https://media.sweetwater.com/api/i/q-82__ha-
fc89e45000b982eb__hmac-58da05cb846e98105a040618811ae9bad8a093b2/images/items/750/BehrWASP-
large.jpg)

Seeing this announcement immediately reminded me of this article. A strange
wing position for a wasp. So far as I know, that wasp is dead and mounted, for
the same reason that the butterflies are dead.

------
smbullet
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14460013](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14460013)

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mdturnerphys
I can't find the article that I thought had been linked to in the previous
thread, but there was a similar article about depictions of the Moon that I
read around the same time as the first postings of this. The point of that
article was that people are really bad at depicting correct combinations of
phase, orientation, and position for the Moon. It's actually pretty
straightforward to get it right once you think about what the phase and
position tells you about the Sun's position.

~~~
wallflower
[https://ciechanow.ski/earth-and-sun/](https://ciechanow.ski/earth-and-sun/)

------
pbhjpbhj
It seems to me, actually, the body position that seems most incorrect (eg in
the Monarch poster). The body remains largely horizontal, and "above" the
wings.

I saw this post first time around (on HN) and bought the complaint completely.
But, having now looked at lots of slow motion butterfly flight pictures I
think she's over-stating it a little.

Look at this [1], or a slow-mo of Monarchs: the white & black Tree Nymph (I
think it's called) in particular, especially at first take off, or when
gliding, has quite a swept forward wing. Perhaps about 120deg spacing.

Other butterflies, of the ones I saw it was smaller ones but the OP observes
the contrary, have greater than 180deg spacing. That made me wonder if the
wing sweep was more to do with flight conditions (wind speed, etc.)?

Projection, the angle you observe from, is a key factor in the apparent shape
too.

[1] [https://youtu.be/aBfJtTm_XD4](https://youtu.be/aBfJtTm_XD4)

~~~
sfink
I dunno, to me it makes the most sense to portray an at-rest butterfly as it
would appear by choice, when it is resting with its wings fully extended
(whether for display, or to soak up sunlight, I don't know). And those seem to
nearly universally have overlapped wings, as the author describes.

As for snapshotting a butterfly in flight, the wings are so briefly spread
fully that it seems more problematic to show such a brief, flat angle all the
time.

All in all, though, I kinda hate this post. I can't unsee it now.

I still find it to be a great, well-stated, and thought provoking, though.

~~~
Mathnerd314
My impression is that at-rest butterflies usually have their wings folded
together, like this:
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melanargia_galathea_...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melanargia_galathea_bottom_MichaD.jpg)

When they're sunning themselves it's a more relaxed position, similar to
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_with_a_backpiece...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_with_a_backpiece_Christian_and_Enlightenment_tattoo._Color.jpg)

Overall though all the positions seem good and it's more of an artistic
choice. The "dead butterfly" pose shows off the wing patterns better and it's
close enough to positions the butterflies assume in daily life. You don't
often see spread-eagle positions in photos either but nobody would mind using
it to show off some full-body tattoos.

------
beeforpork
Oh no! Another thing to get head-aches from. I alread get head-aches from bad
kerning and badly tied shoe laces, and now I'll have to watch out for badly
depicted butterflies.

Anyway, it's a beautiful and interesting article!

~~~
nwallin
Badly tied shoelaces?

~~~
beeforpork
[https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm](https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm)

------
tomstuart
Site is down. Internet Archive version:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191214080139/https://emilydams...](https://web.archive.org/web/20191214080139/https://emilydamstra.com/news/please-
enough-dead-butterflies/)

------
skunkworker
It’s hard to unsee the fact that the common depiction of a butterfly is a dead
one instead of an alive one, and based upon a field guide/ shadowbox.

~~~
djsumdog
I dunno. I read about this when this article was posted before and totally
forgot about it until just now. Then again, I don't have a lot of stuff with
images of butterflies. I do have a friend who is obsessed with them who I sent
the same article. I wonder if it's stuck with her.

------
asutekku
This one these things you don’t pay attention until you read about it and now
you are not able to unsee it.

Super interesting, thanks for the read!

~~~
anotheryou
no more butterfly merch for me....

------
WilTimSon
Wonderful write-up! I just love articles like this, when a person takes a tiny
thing and examines it as if under a microscope. Not only have I learned
something about butterflies today and gotten a grim chuckle out of thinking
about all those gaudy dead butterfly products, I've also gained a bit of
appreciation for butterflies and I'm sure this will lead to me looking up
scientific papers about them.

------
mark-r
The best way to get realistic pictures of butterflies is to use a camera. As a
kid I had a fascination with collecting butterflies, and would chase them with
a net and kill them. Once I grew up I realized the pictures were much better.

------
peterwwillis
If it's more than a year old and it's interesting, it's already been posted to
HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14460013](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14460013)

------
anfractuosity
Very interesting, but sad article.

I found out not too long ago, that some butterflies migrate -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepidoptera_migration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepidoptera_migration)

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agumonkey
What an interesting bit of trivia. It's also very different to see a non
pinned butterfly since I see this as a flying lifeform, it has aerodynamics..
(bioengineering early years)

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soup10
-its become the defacto way to represent a butterfly and is unlikely to change

-the vertical and horizontal symmetry is part of the aesthetic

-the live butterfly examples read more like moths

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loopz
Maybe if we depict butterflies more alive, we would treat them better?

