Wings open Courtship Display of Grayling

[Devon Dave]

I was hunting along the coast path near East Soar in Devon last week for Silver Studded blues when I was surprised to witness the Courtship display of a pair of Graylings on a sunny patch by the side of the path.
For the first time in my many years of Butterfly observation I was able to see and photograph Graylings with wings open, even though it was only briefly and I had little time to focus well.
At first the pair approached each other with interest, and then one opened its wings to the other as a kind of display ritual. Then the other responded by also opening its wings. I am not expert enough with this species to identify which was male or female , but both individuals flashed their open wings at each other whilst circling one another one the ground. They then locked in courtship, and on two occasions took to low level flight locked together landing still locked in different locations, before eventually actually mating finally took place. I was so close to them at that time I managed to capture by photograph the actual transfer of the spermatophore package itself.
The whole ritual took about 5 minutes and I thought members of this site might be interested to see the ritual I witnessed on this forum page, so here are a few of my my photos which show the main aspects of the ritual. Comments welcome.

[bugboy]

Great shots of something I've yet to witness. The female is the one with the more prominent eyespots on the upper side. I'm not sure of the purpose of the females wing opening, perhaps ritualistic to show the male she's receptive to his advances, but the male uses this behaviour to ensure he's able to rub the females antennae over his pheromone patch which you can see as a dark triangle on his forewings in the second image

[David M]

Nice work, Dave.

It's always fascinating to watch Grayling courtship. Like Brimstones, they'll show their uppersides quite regularly during this aspect of their behviour. Seems to happen amongst other members of the Grayling family - I've seen Great Banded, Woodland, Rock and Tree Graylings behave in this same fashion too.

[Devon Dave]

Many thanks for the replies by Bugboy and David M, all comments are welcome and add to ones own knowledge base for future observations. I have recently noticed White Letter Hairstreaks tilting their wings at 90 degrees as suitors fly by, and will post about that with some photos in due course.
Devon Dave.