Another Admiral

Late this morning there was a burst of warm sunshine that brought out a variety of insects on the big Viburnum bush. Among them were two very dilapidated yellow admiral butterflies that I was trying to photograph. Suddenly two more flew in and I was astonished to see that they were as fresh as I’d ever seen. Their yellow patches were really yellow instead of pale cream, and the blue specks were noticeably blue. It is unusual to see pristine butterflies so late in the season. This one was somewhat larger than the other. I wonder if that’s a gender difference or if one was better fed as a caterpillar.