Butterflies Love Milkweed!

At Silver Sands State Park this morning, I walked past a long stretch of Common Milkweed in full bloom, and I could not believe the variety of butterflies visiting the flowers! (Not to mention bees, and beetles, and more....) Here's a sampling of some of these fancy winged creatures I encountered, all within a few minutes and in a big patch of gorgeously fragrant milkweed blossoms!

Monarchs are always linked to milkweed in my mind, and these big butterflies were around in force:
 

Are those some gorgeous velvety wings or what? And how about those spots!
 

A Black Swallowtail was showing off its large wings from above:
 

And below:
 

I'm not exactly sure what species of Sulphur this is (genus Colias, either a Clouded or Orange Sulphur), but either way, it's very pretty:
 

This Common Buckeye was quite dazzling, flashing those big eyespots:
 

But it became much more demure when it closed its wings:
 

This Painted Lady, on the other hand, was pretty enough with its wings open:
 

But my goodness, I cannot get over the fantastic intricacy of this creature's wings when they're closed:
 

So now I know that when I have a house someday, I will have to make sure there's milkweed all around!