Butterfly Courtship

In celebration of Earth Day, I posted this short video showing a pair of butterflies in courtship dancing in the air together. They were at it long enough for me to go inside and get a camera. They are Palamedes Swallowtail Butterflies, native to Florida, feeding on the nectar Honeysuckle Vine blossoms, a favorite of butterflies, bees & hummingbirds.

Palamedes Swallowtail or Papilo palamedes (4 1/2") inhabit wooded swamps & borders throughout Florida (except the Keys). Their native diet includes feeding on Red Bay & Sassafras plants. Their mating season is March to December. Caterpillars are green with orange & black eyespots.

Earth Day embodies the idea that you leave the planet better than you found it, safekeeping it for future generations. Environmentalism is making conservation and preservation a priority in your life. Change must be expected and demanded of our leaders to enact policies that are Earth-friendly and reflect the responsibility we all have of being stewards of our fragile planet. But to truly succeed (to paraphrase Gandhi) you must be the change you envision, enacting your own lifestyle choices that improve the environment. Small actions add up, whether that be recycling to creating wildlife habitats in your own yard. In this video, honeysuckle was planted along a fenceline. It now feeds many species of animals and provides a place for those animals to raise their young.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• dafttool
• earthday
• nature
• environmentalism
• palamedes
• swallowtail
• butterfly
• honeysuckle
• feeding
• flower
• mating
• dance
• insect
• wildlife

[loveyoutodeathbut]

Love butterflies and butterflies in love are the best!

[dafttool]

Thanks for the comment & the subscription. My next video is of butterflies again. I've been trying to collect as many species on video as I could this summer, & only have to edit it together now.

[TheOarFish]

Cool!

[dafttool]

Thanks.:)

[Deswaldso]

Since butterflies are moving really fast, It's hard to film them. And you did a good job =)

[dafttool]

They helped out by not going anywhere really fast. :)

[HighPotencyMusic]

Nice vid!

[sragil]

What a fun video

[MsGirlee]

so pretty, so delicate!

[dafttool]

Music is courtesy of ATB - Andre Tanne Berger, and the song title is Ecstasy, done Kontor Records. I believe you can find him on myspace and itunes. There are lyrics to this song; this clip is just its opening.

The bird noises were recorded by me when I filmed the butterflies. I liked the way they sounded, so kept them in.