Day 125

Posted byThe Bald BirderPosted inbutterflies, family

Thursday 23 July

A day working from home. It’s been quite pleasant being with the family at home midweek. We have seen a lot of each other over recent months, but we never tire of each others company.

The Large White butterfly (Pieris brassicae) is relatively common and widespread throughout the UK. The two spots on the forewings indicate that this is a female.

A butterfly fluttered into the house this afternoon whilst I was at my laptop and set down right in front of me.

Out in the garden fluttering from flower to flower they look so pretty. Think again. It’s proboscis is folded up centrally, underneath the eyes. It uses this big tube to suck up the nectar of flowers.

I have been trying to capture some pictures of butterflies over the past few weeks but have struggled. They’re so jumpy and evasive and once in the air can cover a fair distance pretty rapidly.

My memory of butterflies as a kid was that they were very slow, quite clumsy looking creatures in flight. And very slow on the uptake when it came to evading capture.

At the base of it’s antennae is the Johnston’s organ which is used to create balance and orientation in flight.

This one seemed to know my quest had been challenging and thought it would sit for me to take as many pictures as I wanted, and from any distance.

It’s legs and antennae are well endowed with chemoteceptors which enable males to seek out the feronomes of females, and to ‘taste’ where the best nectar is. The legs can also tapp on leaves to check their suitability to lay eggs.

I was fascinated by the pigments of it’s wings and the mottled patterning. Also, of that amazing mouthpiece and eyes. The surprisingly long antennae and the mouthparts that resembles some kind of machinery. But those eyes, each one looks like it is made of many eyes behind a plastic dome. These are it’s compound eyes which provide the majority of it’s sight.

A butterfly’s wings have thousands of tiny scales making them hydrophobic (water repellent) and their hollow veins allow blood to be pumped through when warming in the sun.

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