Lepidoptera stensonis

Female Orange-tip Butterfly
A butterfly yesterday.

I spotted a really cool butterfly yesterday. It looked for all the world like a dollop of bird poo. Remarkable mimicry. That's evolution for you.

This afternoon, I spoke with Stense on the phone and told her about the butterfly. I explained how I had tried to look it up in my Collins Complete British Insects book, but it hadn't been in there. I said that I was pretty confident I had discovered a species of butterfly which was entirely new to science. That being the case, I would name it after her: Lepidoptera stensonis, or something like that.

Stense said she didn't want something which looks like a dollop of bird poo naming after her. I said that some people are never bloody satisfied.

Stense needn't have worried: I later worked out that my butterfly was a female orange-tip [Anthocharis cardamines].

The female orange-tip doesn't have an orange tip. That's what threw me.

Richard Carter

A fat, bearded chap with a Charles Darwin fixation.

3 comments

  1. Isn't that just like the female of the species. It's an 'orange-tip' butterfly, but can it be arsed to have orange tips....Oh No! The mottled markings are obviously a camouflage of sorts, but the male of the species is willing to put his life in jeopardy by sporting fancy orange tips, just to impress his mate and prolong the life of the species...but not her, Oh No! All you''ll get from her is stupid questions like 'If I died would you marry again?".............

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