…and butterflies.
A male large white butterfly (Pieris brassicae, aka the ‘cabbage white’) zeroing in on a potential mate…
I normally try to avoid taking photographs of UK wildlife on imported garden plants, in this case buddleia, species of which grow endemically on several continents, and I believe our UK variety arrived here from the Himalayas.
No longer anything ‘potential’ about her!
But in this instance the drama was so compelling (and I was testing out my new macro zoom that I introduced in the last post) so I decided to share this sequence.
Several mating events ensued after which the male settled on a lower flowerhead to sip nectar and replenish his energy reserves:
The large white, along with the small white (Pieris rapae), are known as the ‘cabbage whites‘ because they lay their eggs on members of the cabbage family and the caterpillars can do a lot of damage to cultivated cabbages. But I’m quite happy to share my cabbage allowance with them and I love to see them fluttering through my garden and along the hedgerows.
The Naturephile 