Burnet Courtship
I went for some more target practice at flying Burnet moths and noticed that they were attracted by two things. The first was flowers, and the second was virgin females. Amorous males were patrolling the meadow in search of newly-hatched females. I found a freshly-emerged female sitting on a grass head just above the papery, off-white cocoon with the empty pupal case extruding from the top. So I got in position and waited for her suitors to arrive. This one tried and tried but was ultimately unsuccessful in getting her to mate. But I managed to capture the moment that he arrived, using a shutter speed of 1/4000 to freeze the wings, as they move so fast all you can see in real life is a red blur.
These are Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnets (Zygaena lonicerae) in Thunderbridge Meadows near Huddersfield.
Burnet Courtship
I went for some more target practice at flying Burnet moths and noticed that they were attracted by two things. The first was flowers, and the second was virgin females. Amorous males were patrolling the meadow in search of newly-hatched females. I found a freshly-emerged female sitting on a grass head just above the papery, off-white cocoon with the empty pupal case extruding from the top. So I got in position and waited for her suitors to arrive. This one tried and tried but was ultimately unsuccessful in getting her to mate. But I managed to capture the moment that he arrived, using a shutter speed of 1/4000 to freeze the wings, as they move so fast all you can see in real life is a red blur.
These are Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnets (Zygaena lonicerae) in Thunderbridge Meadows near Huddersfield.