The grammatical butterfly

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.

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This Post Has 21 Comments

  1. chthoniid

    14 Sep 2008

    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

    14 Sep 2008

    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

    14 Sep 2008

    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

    14 Sep 2008

    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

    14 Sep 2008

    Beautiful shots!!

  6. FrogBoots

    14 Sep 2008

    Lovely series! :up: 🙂

  7. SittingFox

    14 Sep 2008

    Such a beauty! 🙂

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

  8. Words

    14 Sep 2008

    Thanks Lois!

  9. Words

    14 Sep 2008

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

  10. Words

    14 Sep 2008

    Thanks FB!

  11. chthoniid

    15 Sep 2008

    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

    15 Sep 2008

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

  13. zetorres

    15 Sep 2008

    Fantastic colors, Words! :up:

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

  14. Words

    15 Sep 2008

    Thanks Ze. This is one of our prettiest butterflies.

  15. zetorres

    15 Sep 2008

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

  16. Cynthia23

    16 Sep 2008

    Absolutely beautiful photos!

  17. Words

    16 Sep 2008

    Thanks Cynthia!

  18. Words

    16 Sep 2008

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

  19. zetorres

    17 Sep 2008

    :up:

  20. Vulpes vulpes

    28 Sep 2008

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

  21. Words

    28 Sep 2008

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

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