Speckled Wood courtship

[Jack Harrison]

I have seen this behaviour before. Female lies flat on the ground and male fans his wings (pheromones presumably) in hope. I presume she is rejecting him. As soon as male gives up and flies off, she flies in a different direction.

Reminds me of the Diamond/Streisand song “You don’t bring me Flowers” with its line “You just roll over and turn off the light”.

Jack

[Dave McCormick]

Jack,

I have seen this before too and when the female is laying like that, yes she is rejecting him. A lot of butterfly females of various species just put up their abdomen to stop the males actually copulating with the female but some have other ways, like this one here. If the male can't get any or much of a response from the female, he might think she is dead, and you can't really mate with a dead butterfly. So they will go persue more "alive" females

Reminds me of the Diamond/Streisand song “You don’t bring me Flowers” with its line “You just roll over and turn off the light”.

lol