Frittilary butterfly in Manning Park, British Columbia

Frittilary Butterfly
According to the Butterflies at Home site (www.butterfliesathome.com/fritillary-butterflies.htm), the frittilary butterfly is so named because of the chess board checkered pattern which adorns its wings.  I don not know the particular species which I photographed, but I know it is a Fritillary because I met a couple who were clearly more passionate about butterflies than I was.  They were equipped with nets and books and were eagerly moving from area to area looking for any form of adult lepidoptera which happened to show itself.  What impressed me was that they gently captured and released each individual, holding onto it only long enough to identify what it was.  I don't recall if they told me about the particular species, but learned enough to go and record the name on my file.
I shot this using my 80-400 mm lens.  It a favourite lens of mine because of its lightening fast focusing abilities.  On my APS-C sensor camera it behaves like a 600 mm, and allows me to get fairly close to modest sized insects.  Since I can also keep my distance, it allows me to not disturb the creatures the way I would using one of my macro lenses.
No fill flash was used; the ISO was 250 and the shutter speed was 1/1000 of a second.  I had the zoom all the way out to 400 mm and had an aperture of f/5.6.  I like the fact that the shot was made head on and you can see the insect's tongue fully extended (you may have to enlarge it a bit - use the control and + key; the control and - key will reduce the image again).  Most of my macro stuff is taken with more specialized equipment, but I don't always have it out when traipsing through the woods.  In this case, it worked out well, although with the right gear I could have managed a better shot - that is if I didn't scare it off before capturing the image. 

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