Mud-puddling

Here are a pair of butterflies, a Common Buckeye and a Pearl Crescent, mud-puddling on dung. Though the name mud-puddling conjures up a dirty activity, insects that do this are looking for nutrients that are more abundant on scat or, less easily noticed, areas with urine. Sometimes you'll even see them mud-puddling on rotting fruit or decaying animals.

A good mud-puddling location is a good place to find a bunch of butterflies congregating together. Even a small flower patch is more dispersed than fox dung, so the action is sometimes concentrated into a very small area. 

I'm not exactly sure how butterflies find a good mud-puddling location in the first place, but there's some evidence that once a butterfly finds a good location the other butterflies (even of different species) take notice and join in. Naturalists have been known to put a fake butterfly in a location in order to convince other butterflies to check the location out.

August 15, 2020 at Negri Nepote Native Grassland Preserve


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