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| 1 | 2 |  » Stats |
Members: 50,136
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Top Poster: glsammy (15,069)
| | Welcome to our newest member, kathyheel | |  | 
13-07-2009, 12:42 PM
|  | Active Member | | Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: South Wales
Posts: 98
| |  Mis matched pairing ?
Hello anyone !
As far as I can tell this is a Meadow Brown mating with a Ringlet ... is there any precidence for this behaviour please?
regards
Zan  |
13-07-2009, 01:30 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Grantham, Lincolnshire
Posts: 1,928
| | | Re: Mis matched pairing ?
Interesting picture. It would appear to be a male MB attempting to mate with a female Ringlet. Did they remain 'in cop' or did they realise the mistake and fly off?
__________________
"We cannot command nature except by obeying her"
Francis Bacon |
13-07-2009, 02:35 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 1,350
| | | Re: Mis matched pairing ?
Yeah that is interesting!
I suggest you contact your local butterfly conservation branch (presumably this was taken in South Wales - in which case: Butterfly Conservation - South Wales Branch - Home Page should have contact details).
Whilst these "intergeneric going ons" aren't particularly important in a scientific sense (not much chance of anything coming of it...) I'm sure they would be interested as the picture clearly shows the pair in cop and would make a great article!
These kinds of pairings don't occur commonly in the wild (well they do, especially between different species, but on a much larger timescale and instead of calling them different species we would probably call them subspecies because they breed... hence we don't recognise the inter breeding) they're more noticeable when humans get involved and "force" it - for example, the Eyed Hawkmoth cross with Poplar Hawkmoth. |
13-07-2009, 03:15 PM
| | Active Member | | Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: South Wales
Posts: 98
| | | Re: Mis matched pairing ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lance Morgan  Interesting picture. It would appear to be a male MB attempting to mate with a female Ringlet. Did they remain 'in cop' or did they realise the mistake and fly off? | Could have been all day ! I found them 'at it' and took several photos for about 5-10 minutes and they were still 'in cop' when I left ...maybe they'd got stuck. |
13-07-2009, 03:16 PM
| | Active Member | | Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: South Wales
Posts: 98
| | | Re: Mis matched pairing ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlieb Yeah that is interesting!
I suggest you contact your local butterfly conservation branch (presumably this was taken in South Wales - in which case: Butterfly Conservation - South Wales Branch - Home Page should have contact details).
Whilst these "intergeneric going ons" aren't particularly important in a scientific sense (not much chance of anything coming of it...) I'm sure they would be interested as the picture clearly shows the pair in cop and would make a great article!
These kinds of pairings don't occur commonly in the wild (well they do, especially between different species, but on a much larger timescale and instead of calling them different species we would probably call them subspecies because they breed... hence we don't recognise the inter breeding) they're more noticeable when humans get involved and "force" it - for example, the Eyed Hawkmoth cross with Poplar Hawkmoth. | Thanks for your info and details, I will indeed send them my pic and see what they say.
cheers  |
13-07-2009, 05:00 PM
|  | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Earth - I think
Posts: 983
| | | Re: Mis matched pairing ?
That's really great - thanks for sharing.  |
16-07-2009, 12:55 PM
| | Active Member | | Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: South Wales
Posts: 98
| | | Re: Mis matched pairing ?
Hi Charlie b
In case you are interested, I did as you suggested and got this reply:
Dear Zan
Many thanks for this. It is unusual but not unheard of for such interspecies matings. Russel was correct that there was a published picture of the same pairing (i.e. Ringlet and Meadow Brown) in Butterfly magazine (Butterfly Conservation News, as it was known then) issue 79 in 2002. This pair was seen in Scotland.
Best wishes
Richard Fox
Surveys Manager
Butterfly Conservation | | |
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