Marsh fritillaries, Euphydryas aurinia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), are one of my favourite butterflies. The beautiful tapestry of yellow, orange and black colours on their wings creates a stunningly attractive pattern, especially when contrasted against the bright pink colour of a flower. The beautiful appearance of butterflies is, I think, even more attractive when we discover something…
One day, earlier in the summer (on 28th June 19), I came across huge numbers of common blue damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum) which had emerged from a lake – Felmersham gravel pits – and were basking in the sunshine on vegetation round about. Many of them were mating, and I took a series of photographs of…
Females butterflies are usually a lot more choosy than males. They produce eggs, and have more resources invested in each one; compared to the millions of tiny sperms that males can produce and put about! So for females, some of whom will only mate once, it is imperative to choose the best male, in terms of…
When I first saw this pair of Wood white butterflies in Spain, I did not realise that they were mating, i.e. in copula, as they were at right angles to each other. But it soon became apparent as I took a series of photographs highlighting both the male and female. The sexes can be told apart…
It is not unusual to come across mating butterflies, although sometimes copulation takes place well away from where they normally feed or defend territories: for example, in the tree tops or deep in the undergrowth. Mating is risky; copulating pairs are usually relatively inactive and therefore vulnerable to attack by predators. The scientific term for…
When damselflies mate, the male grasps the female by the front end of her thorax (the pronotum); but only if she is willing! Accepting his advance is not compulsory according to Chandler and Cham (2013) in their excellent book: Dragonfly. Together they form a heart-shaped tandem that can last for up to an hour. The…
The Plain Tiger, Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758), is a butterfly with an enormous distribution – from West Africa to New Zealand (1, 2). There are a large number of different forms or subspecies comprising what is called a ‘species complex’. This is a name given to a group of insects by taxonomists when they don’t really know,…
Ray Cannon's nature notes 