Meadow brown alights on scabious 18 July A meadow brown alights on a scabious, hoping for nectar. It's in for a shock.
I took a sequence of photographs, unaware of the drama unfolding before me. Only subsequently, in editing images, did I begin to work it out. So here's the sequence.
Stems of grass frame the butterfly. Look closely at those seed-heads on the left. In summer, long stems of grasses are woven into spiders' nests, and traps for the unwary. Watch the position of the butterfly and see how it changes.
I took a sequence of photographs, unaware of the drama unfolding before me. Only subsequently, in editing images, did I begin to work it out. So here's the sequence.
Stems of grass frame the butterfly. Look closely at those seed-heads on the left. In summer, long stems of grasses are woven into spiders' nests, and traps for the unwary. Watch the position of the butterfly and see how it changes.
A butterfly hot-spot on a calm morning with alto-cumulus cloud and interludes of hot sun. Scabious grew dense and attracted bees, hover flies, and butterflies in courtship dance. There was competition for nectar. For this meadow brown not where you eat, but where you are eaten. Watch out!
The meadow brown alights, showing its rich brown upper-wing surface, facing head down. Follow the grass blade behind the scabious. The butterfly closes its wings, showing the paler underside, and rotates about the flower.
A pale tangle appears above it. I binned this image ( the focus isn't sharp) and retrieved it once I'd realised I was seeing something unusual. Well, everyday for spider and butterfly but I've never seen this before.
I cannot see a spider's web but perhaps the spider was lying in wait in a web. Those grass blades may have been shaped into a trap.
The meadow brown alights, showing its rich brown upper-wing surface, facing head down. Follow the grass blade behind the scabious. The butterfly closes its wings, showing the paler underside, and rotates about the flower.
A pale tangle appears above it. I binned this image ( the focus isn't sharp) and retrieved it once I'd realised I was seeing something unusual. Well, everyday for spider and butterfly but I've never seen this before.
I cannot see a spider's web but perhaps the spider was lying in wait in a web. Those grass blades may have been shaped into a trap.
The pale spider is flecked with dark spots. No idea what spider- but what's in a name? Their behaviour is what interests me here. I found a video on U tube where a spider catches a butterfly in its web, spins silk around the body and transforms it into a neat package, to be eaten later.
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