Cloudless Sulphur -female- (Phoebis sennae) U.S. National Arboretum, Washington DC
Not many blooms remain so late in the season and butterflies were making the best of whatever nectar they could get, sometimes diving deep into the blooms up to their ears (or rather, their eyes and antennae).
Interestingly the female clearly preferred pink blossoms and the male (in the next shot) settled on orange colored ones. I did not understand why, but looking more closely her coloration matches with the pink because she has pink hairs on her head while the male has brown hairs that go better with orange.
Just a wild guess. It's fun to watch butterflies.
Cloudless Sulphur -female- (Phoebis sennae) U.S. National Arboretum, Washington DC
Not many blooms remain so late in the season and butterflies were making the best of whatever nectar they could get, sometimes diving deep into the blooms up to their ears (or rather, their eyes and antennae).
Interestingly the female clearly preferred pink blossoms and the male (in the next shot) settled on orange colored ones. I did not understand why, but looking more closely her coloration matches with the pink because she has pink hairs on her head while the male has brown hairs that go better with orange.
Just a wild guess. It's fun to watch butterflies.