The aging monarch

A male Danaus plexippus (Monarch butterfly) a bit the worse for wear feeding on some pink Phlox subulata (creeping phlox, moss phlox, alpine phlox) flowers in a garden bed at Christchurch Botanic Gardens, New Zealand.

 

The image is a bit cluttered with the yellowing and purpling decaying portions of the flowers, but it compliments the aged and dignified state of this butterfly - with rents in his wings, and alternating between leaping and crawling between flowers.

 

His majesty was regularly soaring up to see off the incursions of a smaller, fresher looking young whippersnapper of an upstart prince/princess that looked to be eyeing up his kingdom (and perhaps making pointed comments about the royal succession). After the previous battle was over, and the enemy seen off, he collapsed gasping to the flower bed to recover his strength and bear up for the next assault on his sovereignty. Besieged, beaten down, and refusing to abdicate.

 

Cropped and a touch of sharpening applied, otherwise untouched camera jpeg.

Done