I think I’m destined to only take photos of imperfect butterflies. The last one had ragged wings and this one is missing a big chunk on his wing which I didn’t realise until I downloaded my pics. He did manage to fly about OK though.
The Common Blue is probably one of the most common butterflies in NZ but due to its small size and flight close to the ground it’s probably one of the most overlooked butterflies too. The butterfly is very small, having an average wing span of 24mm. Males have a stronger blue colour on the upper side of their wings than females (so I reckon this one’s a boy). The underside of the wings is silvery grey and dotted with brown and white spots. They lose their blue colour and become greyer with age (I know the feeling!). They inhabit grassland, lawns, roadsides and riverbanks. It is sometimes considered a pest on pastures because the caterpillars eat clover, trefoil and lucerne.
Also, I don't think imperfect butterflies are a bad capture. It shows that their lives maybe aren't quite a leisurely and graceful as we tend to think. Butterflies actually have a lot of predators to be on the watch for. Maybe they should have some "battle scars".
Excellent capture, I have been trying for one of these for a while now - the common blues are becoming quite uncommon in certain areas due to the German paper wasp which was accidentally introduced a few years back.
@alinz@dide@rickster549@lisamccloskey@debrac@aat3877@tiedmark@snaphappi Thanks very much. It's quite a little thing. I tried to take shots of a few but they kept flying away (of course!). I was down on hands and knees creeping forward really slowly so I didn't frighten this one away - anyone driving past would probably have thought I was mad! The things we do....
