Butterflies: Purple Admiral

The purple admiral (Apatura iris), grote weerschijnvlinder in Dutch, is rare in The Netherlands, but more common in Central Europe and some parts of Asia. It is relatively large, with a wingspan of about 75mm (3").

These butterflies live high up in the canopies of oak trees, like the purple hairstreak does, the difference being that the purple admiral inconveniently picks very tall oak trees, where they feed on tree sap and honeydew secreted by aphids.

I haven't ventured up these high oak trees for photos, sorry about that, but fortunately these butterflies sometimes come down to forage on the forest floor and roads, as they also feed on dung, urine and animal carcasses. Not cute, but at least you can photograph them then, although the background usually isn't the most attractive.

Over the years I managed to get two photos of this butterfly, both with the right angle to show the blue sheen on the wings the males have:

^{Olympus XZ-1, 112mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/80s}

^{Olympus XZ-1, 112mm, ISO100, f8, 1/125s}

These photos were taken near the Aamsveen, a peat bog in the east of The Netherlands.

Thanks for watching!

Previous in series: White Admiral.