The White Admiral Butterfly

 If I was pushed to name my favourite butterfly, it would most likely be the White Admiral (Limenitis camilla). It has an understated beauty and is surely one of our most elegant butterflies. It has an ethereal and nebulous quality as it flits and glides in and out of the canopy and I never tire of watching it and trying to get to know its habits.

I have spent many pleasurable hours observing stages of its life cycle in the wild but I had never before witnessed courtship behaviour leading to mating. In most years, I have tended to see only one or two individuals flying at any one time but this year camilla has emerged in very good numbers in my local woods and I have regularly watched up to five flying together.

 It seemed to be a good year to just stand, watch and wait.

White Admiral (Limenitis camilla)

Female

Males

On 24th. June, I was slowly walking along a ride watching patrolling White Admirals when I saw a female, closely followed by a male, drop into the bracken bed just metres away from me. I peered under the bracken canopy to see the female being courted by the male who was fanning his wings around her.

I dared to hope that I was about to see a mating occur. After about 20 seconds, the female flew out from the bracken and upwards, with the male in close pursuit and they settled about 30 feet up in a birch tree where coupling immediately occurred.

I managed to get a photograph (or two) at the full limit of my cameras capability and watched them for over an hour before aching knees sent me home for breakfast. I was absolutely thrilled.

Mating pair