popinjay, scat puddling

If you are on butterfly watch on a trail, the best place to spot them would be over rotten fruits—or animal scats. Butterflies do mud puddling for their sodium/salt intake. Probably for similar reasons, they also end up on animal scats, and the behavior can be called scat puddling.

popinjay butterfly, stibochiona nicea

The image here is of a popinjay butterfly, intoxicated by the decomposing animal scat, and unaware of the surroundings. There are more butterflies enjoying the feast, in the image below—how many can you spot?

popinjay and other butterflies scat puddling

Species: Stibochiona nicea, Common Name: Popinjay, Family: Nymphalidae
Date: 23 Mar 2013
Location: Namdapha National Park, Arunachal Pradesh, India.
Camera: Nikon D80 + Tamron SP AF90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Lens

7 Responses

  1. Suman Prajapati says:

    i can see “Common Map” butterfly. Am i right?

  2. John says:

    Are there 5 butterflies, and do they represent 4, or 3 species? That Popinjay is beautiful. Oh, nice tip about the muddling and puddling!

  3. Rekha Vaz says:

    love it… amazing capture

  4. kebhari says:

    Lovely images of the butterfly! The black color of the building somehow does not blend with the beauty of the bird.

  5. What a butterfly !! Loved it 🙂 Nice blog too

  6. Rata says:

    Beautiful photographs!

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