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Hi - I was at Arnside on Monday and amongst other things saw and photographed a number of Scotch Argus. I always use a flash unit to adequately control my depth of field and have never noticed anything, insect or otherwise, being disturbed by the powering up whine before. I have mine set so that it powers down and then back up again when I start to focus and every single time I got near a Scotch Argus the noise disturbed them - anyone else noticed this behaviour?
Also finally managed decent shots of Purple Hairstreaks at Gaitbarrows

The zoom drive on my Canon S3 disturbs commas.

Dave wrote:Hi - I was at Arnside on Monday and amongst other things saw and photographed a number of Scotch Argus. I always use a flash unit to adequately control my depth of field and have never noticed anything, insect or otherwise, being disturbed by the powering up whine before. I have mine set so that it powers down and then back up again when I start to focus and every single time I got near a Scotch Argus the noise disturbed them - anyone else noticed this behaviour?
Also finally managed decent shots of Purple Hairstreaks at Gaitbarrows

I used to use flash extensively, and found that the pre-sync flash (that you probably don't notice) used to spook all of the Satyrids. I never noticed anything with the sound though.

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi there

Butterflies in the family Nymphalidae ( including Satyrinae, Morphinae, Danainae, Charaxinae etc ) have an "ear" on the wings, in the form of a tiny funnel covered in a microscopically thin membrane. There is a scanning electron microscope photo of this on my website at http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/St ... ue%202.htm


Noise causes the membrane to vibrate and an alert message is communicated via the nervous system. Members of the subfamily Satyrinae are particularly sensitive to noise and vibration. Speckled Woods, Wall Browns, Scotch Argus etc are all very sensitive to nearby sounds from whining flashguns, shutters, dead eaves being crunched underfoot etc.

The Satyrines ( Browns ) and Brassolines ( neotropical Owl butterflies ) also have very sensitive eyes that react to the tiniest changes in light levels, so are very easily disturbed by the pre-flash from an automatic flash unit. It makes sense therefore to use a long lens to maintain a rasonable distance, to avoid using flash when possible, and to approach very quietly !

adrianhoskins@hotmail.co.uk