Battus polydamus

A muddy road is just another of the many convenient places to find butterflies "puddling" or taking in nutrients from the soil through their modified tongue, which works like a portable straw which can be easily coiled up beneath the head when not in use. Most close-up butterfly images are taken of butterflies nectaring at flowers, puddling at some moist earthy substance like mud, animal scat, or rotting fruit, or while laying eggs on their host plant. I like to look closely at butterfly images to see what the butterfly was doing when the photographer tripped the shutter. More often than not, we will find that the image tells you something of the butterfly's life history. So we can keep on learning long after we return from our trips.