Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Love and Pretending

This male Common Mormon Papilio polytes was flitting from flower to flower when he saw the female.
And his thoughts turned lightly to the dance of love.

The female Common Mormon was pretending to be a Crimson Rose butterfly. But this did not deter their dance of love.


The female often mimics the Common Rose or the Crimson Rose butterfly because the Roses taste horrible and the birds avoid them. This mimicry among the butterflies has been mentioned as long ago as 1864,in an article by Alfred Russel Wallace.



6 comments:

  1. What a fun, interesting and beautiful post! I love it! They do look as though they're having fun! Great photos as always! Enjoy your day!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  2. These 2 beautiful butterflies seem to be having a summer's rendezvous! A great capture, Lotusleaf!

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Love"-ly deception of the butterflies! Your pictures are poetic, Lotusleaf!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cool butterflies! How great to capture their story in photos!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sylvia, it seems to be the mating seeson for butterflies now.
    Autumn Gelle, I was lucky to get those shots yesterday afternoon.
    Shailaja, thank you. I couldn't wait to post it after I snpped them.
    Floridagirl, it was just luck.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You've captured the entire ritual of love! Loved these shots!

    ReplyDelete