~Solitary Holly Blue Egg~

Thought I'd upload this as it is the first Butterfly egg I've ever photographed.

 

This is the egg of a Holly Blue, Celastrina argiolus, how do I know this? Easy, I saw her lay the egg. So it seems that Holly Blue's lay solitary eggs, whereas other Butterflies will lay a clutch of eggs, I guess there are advantages with this tactic, the caterpillar will not have to compete with siblings for food.

 

Anyway, they are such amazing and intricate structures, this was a focus stack of 6 images at x4.5 mag and very tricky as it was at head height and I was holding the plant in one hand and camera in the other, at the same time being careful not to disturb the egg. I think I will try a higher magnification stack next time as I'd love to see more, but you still get an idea of the delicate complexities of these structures, I have included a crop in the comments. There is a slight tint of green, I think this was due to position of the egg and the awkward position I had the camera in.

 

VIEW LARGE

Done