Mating Butterfly

[JoanYoung]

Great Mormon Butterfly from Thailand

[MacroLuv]

Very beautiful Joan.
They crossed their wings.
Difficulf condition for taking capture against the sky. (Or maybe it's river or lake at background?)

[JoanYoung]

Thank you Nikola. The background is plastic with the sun shining on it. This is a small butterfly house where they have a few of these beautiful butterflies. They also have mist sprayers on to keep it humid, and I was scared of getting water in the camera so I was very pleased with how these turn out.

[beetleman]

Not too hard to tell the difference in the sexes with this couple. Beautiful butterflies and photos Joan.

[JoanYoung]

Thank you Doug. I was amazed that the male and female could look so different from each other, also that they could actually fly while bonding. I was told that they could mate for up to 12 hours.

[rjlittlefield]

The part about "could actually fly while bonding" is interesting to me.

It's quite common for pairs of butterflies to fly while mating. But in all the ones I know, this is accomplished by having one member fly while the other one just hangs. A bit unbalanced, I'm sure, but with those huge wings I imagine that butterflies have lots of spare lift.

The strange thing about this pair, though, is that their hind wings are interleaved -- each butterfly has one hind wing on top.

So I wonder... When they fly, do they flap synchronously, or do their abdomens twist so the spare wing sits harmlessly aligned in the middle, or is the pictured pose just an anomaly, and they sort things out before taking off?

Any ideas, Joan?

--Rik

[JoanYoung]

Thanks for commenting Rik. I spent quite a while with them and they seemed to change position quite a bit plus there was another male disturbing them. This image might give you a better idea of how they fly. As you can see, the wings are not interlaced in this one. I must also add that I do not know anything about butterflies or insects so am going on what the lady told me. There were a lot of pairs flying around but these stayed glued to the tree they were on the whole time I was there which was about 6 hours.

[MacroLuv]

I was told that they could mate for up to 12 hours.

If so, that increases chances to find them "in flagrante delicto".
Rik, they have a plenty of time for the whole Kama Sutra.

[JoanYoung]

LOL!! A VERY delicate way of putting it Nikola. Not too sure about the Kama Sutra though

[Walter Piorkowski]

Nice images Joan.
Walt

[rjlittlefield]

> whole Kama Sutra

And there I was, clinically deciding it was the female who would fly, and the male who would hang. I am so ashamed...

--Rik

(The male is the dark one; I can see its claspers in image #1.)

[JoanYoung]

Thanks for the nice comment Walt.

[rjlittlefield]

Thanks for the follow-up PM, Joan. It seems from the second picture that these butterflies take the usual approach -- one flies, one hangs -- and the interleaved wings was just a temporary posture. In this second picture, it's more clear that the lower butterfly is not hanging onto anything with its legs. The pair of photos work well together. From the first, it's clear which is the male, and from the second, who the more "active" partner is.

Thanks again,
--Rik

[JoanYoung]

You are welcome Rik. I should have thought to post both pictures in the first place, but not knowing butterflies, it did not strike me as unusual having the wings crossed in the first one. Now I know for next time. Comments like I am getting here are helping me a lot. Thanks.