Blue butterfly: small but cooperative

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:39 pm

Well, the butterflies aren't really active yet out here in the Pacific Northwest. But since it seems to be butterfly week, I'll contribute this shot from the archives. This is a typical small male blue (Euphilotes sp.), sucking up salts from soil near a campfire circle.

Sigma 105mm, cropped from roughly 1:2 image.
Handheld, natural light, f/16, 1/160 sec, ISO 400.

In all fairness, I have to admit that this particular little fellow was rather more approachable than most.

To illustrate this point, and for the sake of scale, I offer...

...the finger?

Hope this brings a small smile to your faces.

--Rik

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 2:52 am

That is a great photograph Rik.

Thanks for showing us the butterfly and giving us the "finger," as a size comparison of course. Hope those prints don't connect you to anything.

S. Alden · Post by **S. Alden** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 5:10 am

Nice BF. These guys can be cooperative if the weather is a bit cool. They just cannot seem to get going until it warms up a bit.

Nice finger prints

Beetleman · Post by **Beetleman** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:15 am

Wonderful shots RiK, super small subject. In the first pic, you can see that he (or she) was interested in sucking something from the ground, its Proboscis is out, maybe moisture or something formenting or sweet.

twebster · Post by **twebster** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:37 am

Hi ya' Beetleman,

Butterflies "puddle" around moist spots to ingest minerals that are dissolved in the water. I have seen Two-Tailed Swallowtail butterflies in Arizona "puddle" on fresh cow urine to ingest minerals.

I have also witnessed these same swallowtail butterflies "puddling" in moist sand near streams. If you approach slowly and watch carefully you can actually watch water drip from the butterfly's anus. The minerals are the butterfly's equivalent of electrolytes in blood.

Rik...Great shot

Love the details in the butterfly and the finger adds a great scale point. Just be careful which finger you're using

Best regards,

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:35 am

twebster wrote:Butterflies "puddle" around moist spots to ingest minerals that are dissolved in the water. ... If you approach slowly and watch carefully you can actually watch water drip from the butterfly's anus. The minerals are the butterfly's equivalent of electrolytes in blood.

Adding a couple of details that I find interesting about this behavior...

1. The puddlers are overwhelmingly male -- like >99%. As far as I know, the reasons for this are still unclear. It is known that butterflies often transfer nutrient packets from male to female during mating, and that these nutrient transfers let the females live longer. [ref] Presumably puddling lets the males make bigger and better packets, resulting in mates that lay more eggs, and so on. But why do the females uniformly "prefer" to get their salts in other ways, while the males cluster around the puddles? [Insert bar joke here...

]

2. It's not restricted to puddles! I have seen little blues probing with their proboscis on surfaces that I would swear had to be completely dry. I suspect that in these cases the butterfly is regurgitating a bit of fluid, letting it dissolve salts from the surface, then sucking it back up. Like licking a potato chip, maybe.

--Rik

nzmacro · Post by **nzmacro** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:35 pm

Gotta love the scale in this and the ratio. Nice work Rik

All the best up there and well done.

Danny.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:23 pm

Thanks for the compliments, folks!

I really like butterflies, but I completey agree with Tom that some kinds are hugely frustrating to photograph.

To be completely honest, that would be "try photographing".

There are quite a few that I've never caught holding still long enough to focus on --- if they even bother to land at all!

This little fellow was quite a pleasant change.

--Rik