www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I used my tripod today and saw a better result. I managed to get cool and close to these and shoot a vdecent video too. Are these a male and female?






I also got at 50sec video too.

Nice pics Dave! Yes - this is a male and female. The male is the one at the bottom of the pic. During the courting ritual, the male "drums" his antennae on the wings of the female.

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks, I maight be able to get more if a bee had not have disturbed them.

How long does it take bfore the business begins? I got another 6:40mins of video.

This will prove excellent for my website I am creating. I will create a short "documentry" on this so you can watch online the mating process.

if you read the description at

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species. ... toiseshell

you'll see that this could take literally hours!

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks, just finished my video. I will show you when my website is up and running.

Here are the information on those pics:

Top was from video

Bottom pic:

f/4.5
Exposure = 1/500sec
ISO-400
Metering = Multi Spot
No Flash

Nice composition Dave.

How do you tell which is male and which is female, I can't see the difference.

Gwenhwyfar wrote:Nice composition Dave.

How do you tell which is male and which is female, I can't see the difference.

That's a very good question, and one that I was curious about too.

Sexing many vanessids (Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Comma, Peacock, Painted Lady etc.) is really difficult. In this case, I'm going on behaviour (the male "drumming" the wings of the female). There are subtle differences in appearance (the female having a larger abdomen, possibly rounder wings) but nothing conclusive.

Cheers,

- Pete

I have began to notice over years what size the male and female are because in Small Tortoiseshell the male is slightly smaller as many butterflies, but ususally the female is duller in colour.

O.K. here is the only video of mine you will see for a while until my site is up and running. Here is the two tortoiseshells:

http://dailypics.ning.com/video/video/s ... deo%3A4091

Nice one Dave!

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks for showing it Dave, it was really nicely done.

I try and get natural shots and videos. Since my camera takes good videos and I see somthing e.g. a caterpillar eating or mating or a butterfly sucking nectar or mud puddling, I get those shots and make a short video on it. It's better as it shows more than a photo could.

My website shows all aspects of butterflies and moths and I will show you when its ready. I have 5 videos so far on the site and hoping for more throughout the year.

I take the videos, take photos, get all the shots together and make a WMV video on whats currently going on e.g. pupating butterfly etc.. Most will be in the same layout as above, some will be slight different.