Natural History Photographs

Butterflies feed on flowers. Although this is a bit of an overstatement (you might also see them on mud, or even on more exotic food sources, like carrion!), it is certainly true that many butterflies can be seen feeding on all kind of flowers. What they get from flowers is nectar, a watery sugar solution that fuels the butterflies flight.

For a flower to be visited by a butterfly, they have to be available to the butterfly. This applies to spatial as well as temporal availability. If a plant's and a butterflies' habitat do not overlap, there will be little opportunity for a butterfly to visit that plant. More stringent is temporal overlap in presence: if a plant doesn't flower when the butterfly is flying, there will never be an opportunity for a visit. Apart from such quite trivial restrictions, almost anything goes. But not with equal enthusiasm. Some flowers are only incidentally visited, while others are so attractive that they can be loaded with butterflies.