Sleepy Orange

Here's a Sleepy Orange butterfly I found on the ground last summer. (You can check out their open-wing look here.) They'll generally drink nectar, though like many butterflies they'll sometimes supplement that diet with minerals they get from scat, drying mud, etc. 

I don't think there was much nutrition on this leaf, so in this case I'm thinking the butterfly was probably just hanging out here because the temperature was about right and/or it was construed as a relatively safe spot to rest.

Maverick theory: That yellow leaf to the butterfly's left isn't too far from the color of a sulphur butterfly; could this butterfly have flown down to see if the leaf was a potential mate or rival? I don't know, and the butterfly wasn't talking.

August 23, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 229694897, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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