ImagiNature Studio

A Butterfly with a Shoe Fetish... 

On Friday, August 1st, I ventured back up to the Debert area of Nova Scotia. I found another Acadian Hairstreak (Satyrium acadica) to add another record square for NS (see Another (!) Rare Nova Scotia Butterfly for the full story), but the event that made my day was finding a fresh male Aphrodite Fritillary (Speyeria aphrodite) with an apparent shoe fetish. It was, to be brief but succinct, very attentive to my shoes, returning over and over, every time I moved it would circle my leg to land again on my shoe, to imbibe the salts off of my shoes. This is the first photo I took of it.

I'll tell you honestly that it was a bit of a PITA to have to repeatedly shake my foot to get rid of an overly-amorous butterfly—a dog, yes, a butterfly, not so much. Eventually I was able to make it move off enough to bask in a more natural situation so I could get an excellent photo of a fresh male Aphrodite Fritillary. I moved off pretty quickly, too, so that it would return to its usual routine...

...but, of course, I had to return back that way and sure enough, guess who was waiting for me? It was almost a half hour later but as soon as I appeared that fool butterfly made a bee-line (butterfly-line?) for my shoes. Truly, a butterfly with a shoe fetish (or at least, one that was salt-starved and hoping to make a big impression on the ladies)!