What do you think is going on when you see this cluster of Silvery Checkerspot butterflies (Chlosyne nycteis)? Perhaps you think that they all are feeding on something particularly tasty. If you look closely you will noticed that they are facing in different directions and you get the feeling that something else is going on.
I had the benefit of seeing the situation unfold in front of my eyes. A few moments earlier I spotted the mating couple that you see in the second image. I do not see mating butterflies very often so my attention was very much focused on them. Suddenly another butterfly burst on the scene and attempted to turn this into a ménage à trois. In the first image, the interloper is the one on the left.
I suspect that the third butterfly is a male rival and he is trying to steal the female away. He made attempts from several angles to break apart the couple, but was not successful and eventually gave up. I decided that the couple needed some privacy, so I too departed.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
I’m imagining all sorts of captions, Mike, but I’ll save them for another day 😉
I can only imagine…. 🙂
Amazing work, Cheers
Now that’s something we rarely see. Wonderful that you could capture it so beautifully, Mike.
Thanks, Jet. I try to keep my eyes open when I am walking about with my camera in the wild. I have the impression that I am much more attuned to what is going on around me than I was even a few years ago. I think that my nature photography has sharpened my senses in some ways.
Awareness is everything. Watching others mate … something altogether different, but as Dan said, those comments will be saved for another day! Lovely photos with great detail!
I feel like a peeping Tom at times, or a voyeur at a minimum. Still, that is a part of nature too. 🙂