Mating Trouble

After photographing Female Plain Tiger, I was in the hunt for the Male Plain Tiger. As the Plain Tiger is known to be parasitized at least occasionally by Spiroplasma bacteria which selectively kill off male hosts, a subsequent scarcity of Plain Tiger males might have led to this hybridization and the evolution of the new species Dorippus Tiger (Danaus dorippus). From the color pattern of Danaus dorippus, it can be assumed that the ancient lineage had no black apex on the forewings, a character which is still absent in Danaus dorippus.

Mating Trouble

I was not disappointed as after few hours of hunting for a male, I got a bonus catch of mating plain tigers. I was using my Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM on Canon EOS 1D Mark IV fitted with Canon EF 1.4x III Extender. After adjusting myself to a suitable position where these butterflies were clearly visible I patiently waited for long time to get that momentary glimpse of open wing. During mating period these butterflies hardly ever open their wings.

Mating Trouble

After few minutes I could witness a very brief glimpse of Male Plain Tiger opening his wings. The male Plain Tiger is smaller than the female, but more brightly colored. In addition, male plain tigers have a number of secondary sexual characteristics. The male has a pouch on the hind-wing. This spot is white with a thick black border and bulges slightly. It is a cluster of specialized scent scales used to attract females. The males also possess two brush-like organs which can be pushed out of the tip of the abdomen.

Within few minutes I found another male who came looking for female and found this pair. He was spiraling over the pair and each time he came near the mating male, that male used to open its wing to ward him off. Female was quiet and unmoved during any of these advances. This went on for a long time till both male and female started reacting (see the first picture on the top). After that threat the attacking male went away disappointed.

Mating Trouble

The life cycle of a butterfly is dependent on its ability to find a mate and reproduce. The adult butterfly spends much of its time in search of a mate. Insect flight is characterized into two groups, trivial flight and dispersal flight. A trivial flight involves behavior related to daily needs of the butterfly, while dispersal flights are related to migration. Mate locating behavior in male butterflies is also separated into two main categories, patrolling and perching.

Patrolling species fly through their habitat in search of females. Flight is almost constant in this type of behavior where the male uses the females scent to locate her. Wing color is also important with patrolling males. They instinctively know what the female’s wing pattern looks like and search for that pattern. The male is more attracted to the females predominant wing color than any other color, thus a male may be tricked into following an inanimate object that is the same color as the female.

Mating Trouble

In perching butterflies the males await receptive females in certain places and at certain times. A potential female flies past the male, who then darts out to investigate. If it is a suitable female then mating ensues, if not, the male will return to a roosting area to await another potential female. Females seem to know where the males will be perched; hence it is common to see them fluttering in that habitat waiting for a male.

Roosting areas are genetically fixed in each species and both sexes instinctively go to them. Anything passing through the habitat where a male is perching is likely to attract the male. It is very common to see male butterflies investigating other insects including other butterfly species, flies, dragonflies, bees, and wasps. If the male discovers another 2 male of its species a duel will result. Both males will fly in a spiraling manner upward until one, usually the primary resident, will fly back to its perch. This gives the false impression that butterflies are territorial. This is not true since the males are actually investigating whatever object they see in its view to determine if it is a female. Each of these factors play a vital part in mate-locating behavior and ultimately species perpetuation.

Mating Trouble

The main purpose of courtship is to determine if both individuals are healthy members of the correct species. In order for this to occur, adults use color pattern or odor to accept or reject an individual. Many species identify each other with visible colors or ultraviolet patterns seen on the wings. Ultraviolet is used by many butterflies to both identify mates and nectar bearing flowers.

If a female is ready to mate the male will wait until she lands and then will quickly mate with her without any complicated mating ritual. It is also possible that the two may fly in a zigzag pattern or hover beside each other before mating. Pheromones or perfumes are transferred at this time and a fluttering of the wings may occur. Wing fluttering may be an indication of mate acceptance or rejection. Special wing scales with glands contain the pheromones.

Mating Trouble

Sometimes the scales resemble brush-like tufts of hair on the wings and others resemble ordinary wing scales. If the male carries a pheromone he will usually flutter above the female to release his scent. The mating process lasts from 15 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the species. Small butterflies have a short mating span and large butterflies have longer ones, however, mating time also varies in cooler weather. Both sexes can mate more than once.

The male needs up to 8 hours after mating to produce another spermatophore to mate again, and the female may, in some species, be able to mate almost directly after she has finished with a previous mate. Females in most species are temporarily prevented from mating again due to the spermatophore in her mating tube. As soon as the spermatophore is digested she can mate again. The spermatophore has been the subject of many recent studies, and may play a key role in shaping the characteristics of the butterfly mating system.

Mating Trouble

If a female is unreceptive or has just mated, courtship will be more complicated. Females may perform several moves to discourage a male. For example, females may undergo a “rejection dance” in which she flies vertically into the air and then downward quickly so that the male cannot follow her or gets discouraged and leaves. Unreceptive females may also mimic a male when being approached by a perching male of her own species, this also discourages the male from attempting to mate. Females may simply crawl, fly away, or move her abdomen in between her wings so that a male cannot join with her.

Some species have specialized glands in the female called stink clubs to repel males. The stink clubs waft a foul-smelling chemical that males do not like. Stink clubs are engaged after a female has mated. Rejection in females serves a purpose. As stated above, newly mated females may not need to mate again or unreceptive female may try and encourage aggressive males to mate with her in order to obtain the best genetic material. It is important to realize that the female butterfly is not aware of this, it is simply natural selection at work. Most unreceptive females however may not mate at all.

Mating Trouble

Females in general either mate right away or not at all. After mating the female butterfly must find a suitable host plant to lay her eggs. She may almost be able to lay her eggs directly after she has mated, or she may wait several days. Some species can lay as many as 1,000 eggs but one to two hundred or less is more common. The female will fly slowly and land on many plants while searching for her host. The legs contain special clumps of hair-like taste organs and she will use these to test the plants and identify it. Observing this behavior in females may enable one to find the host plant in a habitat.

When the female has found a host plant she will begin to flutter around it and curve her abdomen downward and forward to lay an egg with her ovipositor. The ovipositor has very sensitive hairs that probably taste the plant as well. Females that lay clusters of eggs may take a long time, an hour or more, and visit the same plant repeatedly. Eggs are usually laid singly and glued to the host. Eggs laid on leaves are placed on the underside in most cases and other females will avoid that leaf when searching for places to lay their eggs. Most butterflies lay their eggs on plants that can be eaten by the larva. This is due to the larva’s poor ability to find food. They see weakly and travel slowly. In most cases if a larva does not find its host plant, it dies. Death can also occur if the larva eats an unsuitable plant. Some however do lay their eggs haphazardly on anything around the host plant.

Mating Trouble

Female Plain Tiger

I had written long back on Plain tiger (Danaus chrysippus) butterfly. At that time I was using Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM with 36mm of extension tube to photograph this Plain Tiger butterfly. Soon after the Scarlet Skimmer dragonfly photograph session which I published last week, I spotted a female plain tiger butterfly nearby. I used the same setup as I used in the dragonfly photography. My rig consisted of 1D Mark IV camera with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L + 1.4x tele-converter stabilized on a monopod. Beautiful evening sun gave me plenty of golden light to experiment around this butterfly. It was not at all shy in posing for me as was evident in the photos which is one of the great advantages of using a long telephoto lens for closeup shoots.

Female Plain Tiger Under Side View

As I photographed I noticed that the butterfly had a wound on the thorax at the base of the right hind-wing. The Plain Tiger is protected from attacks due to the unpalatable alkaloids ingested during the larval stages. The larvae pf this butterfly feed on host plants like milkweeds (like Asclepias, Calotropis) which are have toxic alkaloids. The butterfly therefore flies slowly and leisurely, generally close to the ground and in a straight line. This gives a would-be predator ample time to recognize and avoid attacking it. Inexperienced predators will try attacking it, but will learn soon enough to avoid this butterfly as the alkaloids in its body cause vomiting. The butterfly I was photographing also must have escaped such an attack on it.

Female Plain Tiger Side View

It was an old wound, the lymph had accumulated and clotted around the right side of the thorax. Even though injured the butterfly was flying normally and was resting like any other of its kind. Tenacity of this butterfly was amazing. The butterfly also has a tough, leathery skin to survive such occasional attacks. When attacked it fakes death and oozes nauseating liquid which makes it smell and taste terrible. This encourages the predator to release the butterfly quickly. The Plain Tiger thus has the ability to recover “miraculously” from predator attacks that would kill most other butterflies.

Female Plain Tiger Upper Side

Even though a macro lens and a flash setup is ideal to get extremely closeup photos of these butterflies, my tele-macro setup works nice. Drawback of this setup is that it needs a good light and is heavy and cumbersome. So it is not very portable. With that setup I can take quite a good amount of closeup shots with a very creamy bokeh effect. I can also using the same setup photograph birds and other distant object which is a real bonus as the same rig works as dual purpose setup.

Female Plain Tiger Closeup

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens

After returning from Lakshadweep I received my new Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM which i had ordered almost 2 moths prior to my departure to Lakshadweep Islands. Here is my short review on that. I find Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is an ideal walkabout lens. Lens really isn’t too heavy (only 2.5Kg ) and when combined with a good neoprene strap, there is no hardship on a good hike/walk and the performance and potential rewards are well worth the effort. In reality, you really won’t be holding the camera up to the eye for prolonged lengths of time. I also purchased an Indian made Gimbal tripod head via eBay for mounting this lens which I will review later.

The lens arrived in the CS30028 case, looked a bit feminine if truth be told (reminds of a vanity/make-up case). Also supplied is the obligatory slip-on lens cover, the E-145 in this case. This is a non-elasticated cover but quite awkward to remove and put back. I have found a 120mm plastic can lid which fits perfectly as a lens cap. It is easier than slip-on lens cover. The Canon EF300mm f2.8 is also supplied with the ET-120 lens hood. The lens hood is pain to slip on and off but is a life saver for all the glares as well as in preventing damage to front of the lens.

As with other Canon IS lenses, there is a comprehensive control panel to the side of the lens body. Uppermost on the switch control panel of the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is the focus limit control. 3 options here, the 2.5 metres – infinity (full) setting allows the lens to focus from minimum distance to infinity. Then the 2.5 metres – 6.4 metres and finally 6.4 metres to infinity. Basically, if you’re target is expected within a known distance from you, it speeds up autofocus if the lens isn’t hunting through it’s entire range to get a lock-on.

Next we have the AF/MF switch. Says it all really, though you can always operate the camera in manual focus even if it’s set to AF, being FTM (full time manual) design. Personally I would have prefered the option of totally disabling the focus ring, as it’s can shift if you’re working from something like a beanbag.

Next we have the IS switch, Image stabilization on or off. It has confusing 1 & 0 setting which originates from binary, I is on and 0 is off. IS is of older 2-3 stop range but is very useful. The drive is also queit as compared to my Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM lens.

Underneath the IS switch is the Image stabilization mode switch. Mode 1 controls movement vertically and horizontally, mode 2 just counteracts vertical movement so as to allow you to pan along with a subject without the IS system trying to compensate.

Lastly in this panel is the focus preset functions. Basically, you can set a focus distance on the lens, press ‘set’ and you can recall this distance at any time via the twist ring (the ring with the serrated edge) just in front of the focus ring. It’s handy feature if you’re likely to be shooting at 2 vastly different distances. I would prefer it if focus recall was an option on the 4 focus lock buttons and in a really ideal world, a focus recall button would be situated far closer to the camera body, or indeed controlled via the camera itself. I need to find out how to use them effectively.

The tripod collar can be simply removed from the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM, and this is my choice for use as a walk around lens.
To be honest, I haven’t had this lens very long, so this is just a first impression after 2 weeks or so, of some pretty grim weather. My main use for this lens is with tele-converters, so most of my initial use has been with the Canon EFII 1.4x and EFII 2x tele-converters attached, and quite frankly we all know what these flagship Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lenses are capable of used bare.

With the Canon EFII 2x Tele-converter auto focus speed does drop slightly, it’s fast and reliable but not exceptional as it is with a 1.4x tele-converter. As the whole combination is giving f5.6, all focus points on the Canon DSLR are available. Stopping down to f8 does reap the rewards over having the aperture wide open.

Minimum focus distance of Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is a relatively long 8.2′ (2.5m) for a maximum magnification of .13x. An extension tube can resolve this issue, but more assembly is required and infinity focus is lost. Maximum magnification is extended to .18x and .25x with 12mm and 25mm extension tubes respectively. Extenders do not affect the MFD (Minimum Focus Distance) of the lens they are mounted behind, thus the MM (Maximum Magnification) of the lens is also multiplied.

Over all results are fantastic, The Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens is probably most-noted for being extremely sharp. Results at f/2.8 are very sharp from the center right into the full frame corners and only a very slight improvement is noticed when stopped down. This lens is very usable at f/2.8 (I primarily use this lens at f/2.8) – if the super-thin DOF (Depth of Field) is adequate of course.

I am still getting my biceps ready to use these beast of a lens so wait for more photos soon. As you can see the samples of the pictures below I am using this lens as both macro & tele lens shootings birds and butterflies together (not in the same frame though ). Below are few early samples of House sparrow(Passer domesticus), Ashy Prinia (Prinia socialis) and Plain Tiger butterfly(Danaus chrysippus).

Male House Sparrow

Plain Tiger Butterfly

Ashy Prinia