Butterfly Wing Closing

[Lee Hurrell]

Came accross this on the BBC news website this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13573037

Cheers

Lee

[Padfield]

But Pierids open the wings to reject males - allowing photographs of the uppersides of clouded yellow species, for example.

This is a very bad video, that I wouldn't have linked to were it not for this post, but here is a female black-veined white rejecting a male:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL7BYfTHET4[/video]

She is holding her wings rigidly flat and pushing her abdomen at the male.

Guy

EDIT : A still from the same encounter:

[Lee Hurrell]

The headline doesn't fit for all species does it.

As the study was centered on one species, maybe it should have been 'Small Coppers close wings to avoid sex' but then the BBC might have received complaints from vertically challenged police officers....

Cheers

Lee