In the Garden

The other day I became fascinated with first one, then two Fritillary butterflies fluttering over the garden.

Enter Fritillary A

In this scene we see a small orange butterfly restlessly flitting from strawberry leaf to potato leaf, back to strawberry leaf, again to a potato leaf, then once, twice around the garden until a much larger Tiger Swallowtail butterfly suddenly appears and chases the creature off.

Unfortunately (for the spectators), the swallowtail doesn't linger, and after a brief visit to the Sweet William flowers abruptly flies away. At this point, the play seems to have ended when surprise, surprise the Fritillary returns and eventually comes to rest near the lemon mint.

Enter Fritillary B.

Unlike the first butterfly, this Fritillary is very interested in the Painted and Ox-eye Daisies at one end of the garden. Now the first Fritillary approaches the other creating a momentary flurry of wings in the surrounding stillness. This immediately leads to a pursuit the nature of which, I imagine, has something to do with love.

And this ends my tale of two butterflies.

Ever curious about the origin of names -

Fritillary is from the Latin word fritillus meaning dice-box or checkered (markings on wings)

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