www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Weathers cleared up (for today) and got very warm 18c. Anyway, noticed mating species of:

Meadow Brown:



Small Tortoiseshell (courting I think)

Buff Tip:





Think they finised "hanky Panky" when I arrived cause one moved when I tried to take a pic. Anyway, is it the time of year for mny species for this? Cause I saw a quite a few species mating, or attempting to today since it was warmer.

For most species, whatever time of year they fly is the time of year for mating.

Adult humans enjoy the privilege of being able to eat and reproduce, though not necessarily at exactly the same time. Butterflies split these two vital functions into entirely separate parts of their life cycles. Caterpillars are eating machines but have no reproductive capacity. Butterflies can mate and lay eggs (the females) but do not really eat, beyond sucking up sugars and minerals. They certainly don't go in for 'growth and repair', because they take in no proteins. Some moths have no mouth parts at all.

Thus, after emergence, butterflies are like wound up reproductive engines, with a mission to propagate their kind before they run down and die.

Nabokov wondered whether the caterpillar has any idea of what it is going to be, or a butterfly any idea what it was. I guess the scientific answer is 'no', but its an interesting poetic fantasy all the same.

Guy

Thanks Guy, thought that to be the case, except the Monarch. In North America it feeds up and does not get sexual organs until it gets near the Southern Texas shores where it lays their eggs on the Milkweed. Instead it fills up and hold one third of its weight in fat reserves there instead.

Always wonderd how caterpillars know what they are meant to do and how they manage to creat a pupae that can look nothing like them.

Know that Atlas Moth has to mate soon as it can as it has no mouth and lives for only 4 days or so. What a life that must be.

So, it it where warm all year round where butterfly lives, there would be constant generations about then?

padfield wrote:For most species, whatever time of year they fly is the time of year for mating.

Adult humans enjoy the privilege of being able to eat and reproduce, though not necessarily at exactly the same time. Butterflies split these two vital functions into entirely separate parts of their life cycles. Caterpillars are eating machines but have no reproductive capacity. Butterflies can mate and lay eggs (the females) but do not really eat, beyond sucking up sugars and minerals. They certainly don't go in for 'growth and repair', because they take in no proteins. Some moths have no mouth parts at all.

Thus, after emergence, butterflies are like wound up reproductive engines, with a mission to propagate their kind before they run down and die.

Nabokov wondered whether the caterpillar has any idea of what it is going to be, or a butterfly any idea what it was. I guess the scientific answer is 'no', but its an interesting poetic fantasy all the same.

Guy

When I was an immature ovum in my mother's ovaries, I had absolutely no idea what I would be. Sixty five years further down the line, still have no idea ...