Pesky Ants - _TNY_6929
I found this green-banded swallowtail (Papilio palinurus), also known as the emerald peacock, on the floor at the Haga Ocean butterfly house under attack from some of those really annoying ants which live in the vegetation. He or she stayed nicely on my finger and let me brush away and crush all the bothering ants and after that I placed it on a vine hanging vertically at about eye level.
As I obviously wanted to photograph it, I set up the ripod and was messing with the settings when I noticed yet another ant walking along the vine towards the ant! After quickly snapping this shot in case the ant scared it off, I moved in close with my finger and managed to delete the ant without disturbing the butterfly! If you look carefully, you can see half of the ant as it is walking in under the left wing in my shot.
The species of ant here is moste likely the common red ant (Myrmica rubra), sometimes erroneously called the European fire ant, but it isn't closely related to the real fire ants.
One interesting thing about these is the colour. Apart from there being very much of it, it is not really pigments, but instead reflecting light and doing it differently dependng on at which angle you look at it so here it looks quite turquoise, but the hue can vary a lot and be even more blue, but also almost mango yellow from certain angles. Compare the one here with another specimen I found on a previous visit: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52917346784/
The ventral side of the wings instead look like this: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53658197558/
Pesky Ants - _TNY_6929
I found this green-banded swallowtail (Papilio palinurus), also known as the emerald peacock, on the floor at the Haga Ocean butterfly house under attack from some of those really annoying ants which live in the vegetation. He or she stayed nicely on my finger and let me brush away and crush all the bothering ants and after that I placed it on a vine hanging vertically at about eye level.
As I obviously wanted to photograph it, I set up the ripod and was messing with the settings when I noticed yet another ant walking along the vine towards the ant! After quickly snapping this shot in case the ant scared it off, I moved in close with my finger and managed to delete the ant without disturbing the butterfly! If you look carefully, you can see half of the ant as it is walking in under the left wing in my shot.
The species of ant here is moste likely the common red ant (Myrmica rubra), sometimes erroneously called the European fire ant, but it isn't closely related to the real fire ants.
One interesting thing about these is the colour. Apart from there being very much of it, it is not really pigments, but instead reflecting light and doing it differently dependng on at which angle you look at it so here it looks quite turquoise, but the hue can vary a lot and be even more blue, but also almost mango yellow from certain angles. Compare the one here with another specimen I found on a previous visit: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52917346784/
The ventral side of the wings instead look like this: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53658197558/