The courtship behaviour of the silver-washed fritillary, Argynnis paphia (Heliconiinae, Argynnini), is described in most books or websites about butterflies. … More
Tag: courtship
A courtship duet: Drosophila melanogaster
In this blog, I have delved into the voluminous research on the common fruit fly, or vinegar fly, Drosophila … More
Love is a carousel: courting Marsh fritillaries!
Marsh fritillaries, Euphydryas aurinia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), are one of my favourite butterflies. The beautiful tapestry of yellow, orange and black … More
Capturing butterfly behaviour in the field
Capturing animal behaviour in a photograph (or even a video) is never easy. The wonderful natural history programmes we see … More
Argiope cross-weaving spiders; stabilmenta and tiny males
I have come across these Argiope orb-web spiders, a number of times, with their characteristic woven crosses on their webs. … More
Courting brimstones: wing walking
Courtship in pierid butterflies, such as brimstones, is usually fairly brief, but can nevertheless, feature some interesting interactions. I happened … More
Courtship bowing in meadow browns
Meadow brown (Maniola jurtina) butterflies, must, I think, be one of the most common and widespread butterflies in Europe. I … More
Butterfly love and the perils of mating!
Females butterflies are usually a lot more choosy than males. They produce eggs, and have more resources invested in each … More
Courtship and Mating in Wood Whites
When I first saw this pair of Wood white butterflies in Spain, I did not realise that they were mating, … More
Rock (and roll!) Grayling
The great Dutch biologist Niko Tinbergen, first described the highly stereotypic courtship behaviour of the Grayling, Hipparchia semele (Linnaeus 1758), a … More
