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Lamproptera meges
Lamproptera meges, the green dragontail, is a species of swallowtail butterfly found in parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is small and very fast flying, and is often initially mistaken for a wasp when in flight. The males often come to puddles of water to imbibe minerals from the damp ground.
Wet open area in a parking lot of a mountainous national park.
In several of the photos you can see the excess water being expelled after the minerals have been extracted.
Spotted on Apr 10, 2017
Submitted on Apr 10, 2017
16 Comments
All your spottings are really amazing .
thanks Sarah.
AWESOME!! :)
thanks Dan...
Congrats on sotd! Wicked species and great photos!
Haha, blush... you are too kind Leuba !
thank you Bonnie
Haha Mark, lots of mud grovelling at this particular site. Luckily it was very hot so the clothes dried quickly, but I was dried mud from head to foot when I got back to the hotel !! The advantage of quick drying outdoor wear is that I could wear it again the next day, all clean.
Thank you Daniele for the SOTD. This little butterfly was definitely a spotting of my day in Thailand!
Congratulations Pam - This butterfly and photographer deserve this accolade !
Congratulation Pam, you did catch some action here! This is our Spotting of the Day!
"Look carefully! This beautiful Green Dragontail (Lamproptera meges) is seen excreting water in our Spotting of the Day! This butterfly is engaged in mud-puddling, a behavior where important nutrients such as salts and amino acids are obtained from wet soil fluids. Fluid is pumped through the digestive tract and then expelled through the anus. This behavior is mostly restricted to males, who benefit from the nutrients uptake to increase their reproductive success".
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Great images Pam. Thank you for sharing this.
Stunningly beautiful Pam.
If you needed to puddle mud yourself to get these shots then it was well worth it. :)
Wow! Magnificent sighting!
thank you Felix...
Beautiful shots!