CommaButterfly

I've noticed quite a few butterflies out and about over the last couple of weeks, even amidst the rather changeable weather as we head into autumn. They've been mostly Comma butterflies, so called because of the pale marking on the underside of the wings, that resembles a comma. The linked page contains pictures of that underside so you can see what I mean.

These butterflies can actually be seen as late as November, after which they hibernate in a tree with the wings closed to look like a dead leaf. From above they could be mistaken for many other orangey/black/brown butterflies but the very ragged outline (all the better to look like a dead leaf) is an obvious clue that distinguishes it.

Incidentally, this is another example of detailed insect photography with a 400mm telephoto lens from 6+ feet away (the minimum focus distance for my lens). I find this to be quite a good tactic for butterflies since they're less likely to fly away as you size them up, though frankly I'm post-rationalising as in reality I simply had to make do with what I had on the camera at the time.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *