Anyway, dont know whats going on here. Does anyone else?Both butterflies look exactly the same on the inner wings. Don't think these are sexually dimorphic butterflies. The one thats flying did this for several minutes, occasionally landed next to the sitting butterfly. The flight was more 'fluttery' than usual. When the flying butterfly landed, it's head was usually pointed at the end of the abdomen of the other butterfly but I couldnt make out what was happening. I guess this is butterfly courtship.
But it didnt end in mating, so I amnt sure. I've heard of territoriality in butterflies, but the sitting butterfly didn't run, so I guess not.
Anyone surer than me?
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This guy knows a lot about butterflies and is a keen photographer of them (by profession he's a developmental biologist).
He spoke at the Mahableshwar seminar on Development you attended right? And if I remember he did some study on butterflies using google? Do you remember what that was about?
Yes, he spoke on these butterflies whose left and right halves look different -- I can't remember the term (chimeric? but I don't think they develop from chimera embryos, and since I can't remember the term, google is no help). And I can't quite remember what the google connection was, I think he used it to track down specimens in collections around the world, but there may have been more to it than that.
Gynandromorphs? One sides the female morph, the other male.
Yes that was it. For some reason the word "hermaphrodite" had flashed through my memory but I dismissed it...
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