3 things I hadn't seen before

[Martin]

A pair of skippers having a chat...


...mating Meadow Browns...


...and a Small skipper laying eggs.


Martin.

[Dave McCormick]

Good you have seen those. I saw my first mating Meadow Brown this year too. Have not seen many butterflies laying eggs, except Large and Small Whites. Like the "skippers having a chat" image. Must have been intresting.

I saw yesterday a meadow brown and small tortoisehsell on a thistle (same one, but on a different flower head) feeding. Then a bumble bee came along for some nectar and tried to "wrestle" small tortoiseshell off the flower so it could get in, no doing. It then went for the meaodw brown and got him off. Then two more meadow browns passed and bee had enough and took off.

Strange the things you see when you wait and know where and what to look for. I would have had a video of this unusual event, but was trying to flick of a fly at the time.

[Padfield]

Did you see any eggs left behind by that skipper, Martin? I've often seen small skippers creeping up stems testing them with their abdomens but apparently leaving no eggs.

I even invented a word for pretending to lay but not actually doing it. The word is 'oviposturing', as in, 'the brown hairstreak crawled all around the branch, oviposturing wildly but never laying a single egg'.

Guy

[Martin]

It's funny you should say that, Guy...I definitely think it was oviposturing!

Martin.

PS - spell checker doesn't like "oviposturing"

[Dave McCormick]

Thats intresting Guy. Some species are very particular where they lay their eggs and I suppose some way is needed to tell if the plant is right for them.

[eccles]

AFAIK, skippers lay eggs where a blade of grass runs out from the stem. They cannot insert an egg into the stem core.