Orange Overload

If you like your colors between red and yellow on the visible light spectrum, orange you going to be glad to see this post. Amidst the vibrantly orange Butterfly Milkweed there are 3 primarily orange butterflies:
  • Just right of center and probably the reason I noticed the activity is a Monarch butterfly.
  • My recollection is that these milkweeds were pretty far out into a meadow, and I didn't notice the Great Spangled Fritillary until I got my binoculars on them. This butterfly is just to the left of the Monarch.
  • But it wasn't until I got home and processed the photos that I realized there was also a Pearl Crescent in there too, a little to the left of the Great Spangled Fritillary.
Generally speaking, I don't see open hostility between most pollinators. It's not at all uncommon to see butterflies, bees, wasps, and other pollinators near one another and (mostly) going about their own business. There are other instances though when I'm not sure what's going on between butterflies. Sometimes a butterfly will land where another butterfly was drinking nectar and seemingly scare off the original one. I'm not sure if there's a pecking order or if the original butterfly instinctively flew away just in case it was a predator that was approaching. (Butterflies can't bite, sting, or claw, so an attack would presumably consist of little more than hitting the other with their wings, sort of like a slap fight.)

July 15, 2022 at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Photo 221320013, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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