Small white behaviour

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Thu May 03, 2007 4:36 pm

I was watching an area of bluebells and wanted to get a shot of a speckled wood that was in area. This failed.

What I did see was a bit odd I thought. I waited and a male small white came along and did not sit to photo. Then a female came along and male started chasing female around area. A few seconds later, the female left and the male went into, what I can only describe as a "daze".

The male started flying in roughly 10cm or less diameter circles around the patch the female was in before she left. The started zig-zagging area flicking antennae. I watched this for around 1min or so and then the male flew away.

Whats up with him?

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sat May 05, 2007 9:20 am

Were there any white flowers in that area? Butterflies have good colour vision but poor resolution. White males will often investigate white areas so if a female had appeared near white flowers then flew away, it's posible the male mistook the flowers for the missing female and continued to display courtship behaviour.

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Sat May 05, 2007 7:52 pm

Lets see... Nope, only yellow ones and bluebells.

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Wed May 16, 2007 11:34 pm

Finally got around to looking at videos I took of this and could see it was a GV White, not a small or large white.