Cloudless Sulphurs Mudpuddling

Here are 43 Cloudless Sulphurs mudpuddling and one smaller sulphur butterfly.

Yes there are 4 butterflies in the picture; over on the left is one positioned almost head-on, and their thin wings almost disappear. (One difficulty with photographing butterflies is getting a reasonably good angle without scaring the butterfly away.)

All too often I'll see mudpuddling happening on scat, though in this case actual mud was involved.

It's believed that mudpuddling is mostly a male butterfly activity, that the nutrients they acquire gets passed to the female during sex, and ultimately benefits their offspring.

August 18, 2020 at Duke Farms


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