Red-spotted Purples

Last summer I saw some butterfly activity; it turns out there were a couple of Red-spotted Purple butterflies fluttering around. I'm not sure what all the commotion was about:

  • One possibility is that these were both males. Males will attack one another [1] to acquire a territory that they think females would like. It's certainly possible that I got a picture of 2 males resting before they resume their territorial fight.
  • The other main possibility is that these were a male and female getting to know one another prior to mating.
  • I don't think 2 females have much motivation to interact; if they're both females, they may have interacted enough to realize that neither was a male, and so their quest for a mate will need to continue.
August 31, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 229848756, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


[1] Butterflies don't have conventional mouths for biting; they drink fluids using their proboscis instead. Nor do they have claws or talons on their appendages. My impression is that males fight by either fluttering into one another as fast as they can, or by swatting their foes with their wings. By the standards of many animals, their fights are probably pretty wimpy.

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