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(21146)

Orange Tip - Anthocharis cardamine

As the weather has now turned lovely warm and sunny the butterflies are beginning to appear. There seem to be plenty of little Orange Tips this year but it’s hard to catch them as they never settle for long. This one found a lady that he fancied and was very obliging although the two decided to stay near the ground among the grasses and it was hard to catch them together. The quality is therefore pretty poor but I’m still quite pleased to be able to show the two together here, both with open wings.

“The male Orange Tips are a common sight in spring flying along hedgerows and damp meadows in search of the more reclusive female which lacks the orange and is often mistaken for one of the other 'White' butterflies. The undersides are mottled green and white camouflage If you look closely at the mottling you will see that the green colour is in fact made up of a mixture of black and yellow scales.

The female lays eggs singly on the flowerheads of Cuckooflower Cardimine pratensis and Garlic Mustard and many other species of wild Crucifers. The eggs are white to begin with but change to a bright orange after a few days before darkening off just before hatching. Because the larvae feed almost exclusively on the flowers and developing seedpods there is rarely enough food to support more than one larva per plant. If two larvae meet one will often be eaten by the other to eliminate its competitor. Newly hatched larvae will also eat unhatched eggs for the same reason. To stop eggs from being laid on plants already laid on the female leaves a pheromone to deter future females from laying. Pupation occurs in early summer in scrubby vegetation near the foodplant, where they stay to emerge the following spring. Recent research suggests that the emergence of the butterfly may be delayed for as much as two years, thus ensuring the species against unfavourable conditions in a given season.

The Orange Tip is found across Europe, and eastwards into temperate Asia as far as Japan." (Extract from Wikipedia)

This was captured from a distance of 1 metre. It has been cropped and sharpened.

Altered Image #2

uleko

(21146)
This and That
Edited by:eqshannon

(17144)

Contrast adjust 3x....filtered, then noise removal, then sharpened, filtered again...re-framed and signed for Ulla.

Altered Image #1

uleko

(21146)
contrast increase
Edited by:matatur

(2386)

The colors of the original looked a little dull, probably because of being in heavy shade, raised the contrast level a few units to reverse the effect.

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