Skipper livery

The sun was shining brightly when I opened my eyes this morning. But, no sooner had I wrapped my knees, the light dropped and it started to rain. So I did the only sensible thing and climbed back into bed. By 10am things improved, which seems to be a recurring pattern lately and so I made my move.

The light was good, so I really fancied a butterfly shot, to continue were I left off a few days ago. There was a stiff breeze, so it wasn't going to be easy, but amongst the trees there was shelter but the light was lost.

As usual, the big girls were being difficult and once again, failed to connect. But I did get plenty of shots of this colorful skipper.

Back at the lab, I was struck by the detail on the wings, so elected to crop in close, to give you a taste of the complex structure of the dazzling livery. Each tiny scale designed to play with the light, diffusing, refracting, continually changing color and hue, all to confuse its predators.

You can see from the reddish hue of the larger than normal eye, that this butterfly is a low light dweller. Like many moths can operate in the daylight, this butterfly can operate in the darkness.

Hope you enjoy the remarkable colors of this little beauty.

Dave