The grammatical butterfly

By Paul Cecil | Published September 14, 2008

The rare sunshine brought out the butterflies today. We had small whites and red admirals flitting around the garden, but it was the comma which provided the best photos. These are all in my Insect and Bugs album. The comma is noticeable for its ragged wings, but its name derives from the small white 'comma' seen on the underwing, as in this first shot.

Comma

Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, supported by a Manfrotto 458B Neotec tripod and 488RC2 ball head.

This entry was posted in Butterfly and tagged .

21 Comments

  1. chthoniid September 14, 2008 at 3:09 am #

    Hmm, the telephoto has given you a nice DOF :). It's a good selection of shots. And it's a pretty 'funky' looking species.

    Did you use flash as well?

  2. Words September 14, 2008 at 9:09 am #

    No flash. The sun was in a good position as long as I kept my head down! The aperture on these ranges from f/8 (first shot) to f/13 (second shot).

  3. Words September 14, 2008 at 10:09 am #

    Neil, I plan to sort out a spider post very soon. The garden is full of them, including some quite aggressive species which seem to be launching regular attacks on the larger garden spiders. :yikes: :bug:

  4. Ukwildlife September 14, 2008 at 10:09 am #

    Nice photos – the contrast of the orange comma and pink flowers as well as the background work well. Ive had a red admiral fluttering around last 2 days and t5he garden is full of spiders – I must make a note to get out there

  5. cakkleberrylane September 14, 2008 at 1:09 pm #

    Beautiful shots!!

  6. FrogBoots September 14, 2008 at 2:09 pm #

    Lovely series! :up: 🙂

  7. SittingFox September 14, 2008 at 8:09 pm #

    Such a beauty! 🙂

    Curious about the spiders – looking forward to seeing your post! :bug:

  8. Words September 14, 2008 at 10:09 pm #

    Thanks Lois!

  9. Words September 14, 2008 at 10:09 pm #

    Adele, it was back again today. As for the spiders, my impression of aggression was misplaced. Apparently they were mating :whistle:

  10. Words September 14, 2008 at 10:09 pm #

    Thanks FB!

  11. chthoniid September 15, 2008 at 12:09 am #

    Aah, mating happens rather a lot I'm afraid 😀 . Female spiders tend to be bigger than males because those females with the biggest ovaries 'win' with natural selection. The more spiderlings you make, the better. Of course, big ovaries also mean a bigger sized spider.

    Males tend to be smaller because not only because they don't pack ovaries, they often give up on luxuries like food. An being smaller makes evading the female a bit easier. As far as she is concerned, after a successful mating encounter the male's sole remaining value is as protein for egg mass. It isn't always in the male's interest however to get eaten…

  12. Words September 15, 2008 at 12:09 am #

    Brendan, just posted the sequence. Thanks for filling in some of the biological gaps here. 😀

  13. zetorres September 15, 2008 at 5:09 pm #

    Fantastic colors, Words! :up:

    You inspiring me to make my own post about buterflyes! 🙂

  14. Words September 15, 2008 at 9:09 pm #

    Thanks Ze. This is one of our prettiest butterflies.

  15. zetorres September 15, 2008 at 9:09 pm #

    :happy: great! :):) it seems a wood camuflage! :up:

  16. Cynthia23 September 16, 2008 at 10:09 pm #

    Absolutely beautiful photos!

  17. Words September 16, 2008 at 11:09 pm #

    Thanks Cynthia!

  18. Words September 16, 2008 at 11:09 pm #

    Ze, yes it almost disappears when it closes its wings.

  19. zetorres September 17, 2008 at 12:09 pm #

    :up:

  20. Vulpes vulpes September 28, 2008 at 2:09 pm #

    I never knew that was how the comma got its name! Great shots – lovely colour contrasts.

  21. Words September 28, 2008 at 4:09 pm #

    Vulpes, thanks. I knew about the marking but it was good to see it for once.