Nature Photographers Network
This is the preserved archive of the original Nature Photographers Network. The community continues at naturephotographers.network.
Butterfly laying egg
‹ PreviousMacro & Close-up GalleryNext ›

Butterfly laying egg

by Geoffrey Baker

Gallery: Macro & Close-upPosted August 27, 201071 views8 comments
Out in the meadow one evening after work I spotted this butterfly and went over to take some shots, it made no attempt to fly off, instead it was walking in circles on this flower, I had no idea what was about to happen so I started to take some shots.

Suddenly it's back end seemed to extend and open up and out popped this egg, in this photo it hasn't settled into the flower and is probably still falling, in the next shot it's partly hidden in the flower.

Right place, right time eh? :smile:

According to my butterfly book it's a Small Heath.

Minolta Dynax 7D
Sigma 70-300 super macro 2
1/250th second
f14
ISO 400
300mm
-0.3 stop exposure compensation
Centre-weighted metering
A bit of a crop from the original

Comments

8 comments
Comment posted by Joel DeYoung on August 27, 2010 at 6:54 PM
Ha! right place, right time indeed! :biggrin:

Nice comp and colors also. Nicely done. :smile:
Registered on July 12, 2009, 92 Posts, 1074 Comments
Comment posted by Gary Yeoh on August 27, 2010 at 9:15 PM
What timing. Couldn't be better.
Good detail with the BF and nice bg. Good macro image.
Registered on September 1, 2009, 588 Posts, 8184 Comments
Comment posted by Angela McCain on August 27, 2010 at 10:29 PM
Totally cool action. And the photo itself if very nice.
Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments
Comment posted by Peter May on August 28, 2010 at 8:46 AM
Hi Geoffrey. Great sharpness and colors in this shot. I'm not sure about this, so I'm just throwing it out as a possibility. This doesn't look like an egg to me. It looks rather large, and doesn't have any surface sculpting like many ova do. What's most unusual to me, though, is the fact that she is simply dropping it. Every lep I've ever seen ovipositing touches her abdomen to a leaf and places the egg on it, where it sticks.

This looks like a freshly emerged butterfly. Many leps release metabolic wastes from metamorphosis (meconium) soon after they complete their transformation, and these are often colored fluids. I'm wondering if this is a droplet of meconial waste this butterfly is releasing. What do you think?
Registered on November 1, 2003, 7 Posts, 239 Comments
Comment posted by Alessandra & Rocco on August 28, 2010 at 9:22 AM
Nice warm tones :)
Registered on March 3, 2007, 122 Posts, 778 Comments
Comment posted by Sam Rua on August 29, 2010 at 7:38 PM
Very nice detail, Geoffry. I think Peter may be on to something here. I would add that every egg deposit I've seen has been on leaves or stems --- I haven't seen anything on anthers/flowers before. Regardless, the detail and timing of this shot are both very good. :toast:
Registered on September 9, 2006, 130 Posts, 2281 Comments
Comment posted by Geoffrey Baker on August 31, 2010 at 3:23 PM
Thanks guys :smile:

I've been away for a few days and just looked at this photo in the UK forum which I posted the same day and someone on there explained what it was, and you're right, it's not an egg as I thought :redface:

Anyway, it's a good photo of a butterfly dumping waste don't you think? :wink:

Oh well, maybe next time lol.

Geoff.
Registered on August 20, 2010, 192 Posts, 980 Comments
Comment posted by Sam Rua on September 2, 2010 at 10:21 PM
No need to feel :redface: , Geoffrey. This is still a great capture. And I can honestly say I don't think I've ever gotten a capture of butterfly poop. :wink:
Registered on September 9, 2006, 130 Posts, 2281 Comments