Yes Ian is right…….. Sorry I
probably didn’t need to say the almost obvious…………
Philip Veerman
24 Castley Circuit
Kambah ACT 2902
02 - 62314041
-----Original
Message-----
From: Ian Fraser
[]
Sent: Sunday, 22 February 2009 1:16 PM
To: Tony Lawson
Cc:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds]
Cavorting Butterflies
I think your impressions
were spot on Tony. They are Orchard/Citrus Butterflies, Papilio aegeus, like the recent pic on
this line. The whitish one is the female, checking out suitable food plants to
lay her eggs on. The dark one is the male, wanting some input into those eggs.
Females are typically a bit larger than the males.
cheers
IF
Tony Lawson wrote:
The attached photos were taken in our backyard by my wife.
To me it looks like 2 different species - size, colour and shape
are different. But the black & white one seemed fascinated by the
bigger whitish one (which looks very like one that was recently discussed on
this chatline).
Are the species the same? If not why were they'cavorting
together'? And what species are they?
One benefit of their behaviour was that they were in the same spot
for quite some time rather than fluttering all over the place like most of the
butterflies that we see in our garden.
--
Ian Fraser,
Environment Tours; Vertego Environmental Wordsmithing
GPO Box 3268, Canberra, ACT 2601
ph: 61 2 6249 1560 fax: 61 2 6247 3227
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