Jim recently posted a shot of a moth and butterfly:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Standoff.tif.html
OK, Jim, you're making it pretty difficult, with the direct head-on view, to ID
that butterfly. The partly recurved ends of the antennae say "grass skipper,"
but there are still a dozen or more different species of grass skippers in
flight at this time of the year. But specific ID is not important--it's the
"face off" aspect of the shot I find appealing. The blurred wings of the moth
suggest motion, which I like. It's difficult enough to get one butterfly or
moth posed and in focus in a photo. Here the plane of focus is a bit below the
hummingbird moth, favoring, by design or accident, the skipper.
I've watched two or more different butterflies nectaring at a single
flower or flower stalk, and there seems to be little or no ill-will expressed
between or among them. There is none of the territoriality one sees with
hummingbirds at a feeder!
The moth, I have heard, uses taste receptors in its front legs to
either detect the presence of sufficient nectar in the flower or to detect the
recent visit to the flower by a bee or another moth, in which case the flower
is passed over.
Dean
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