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A pair of Marbled White butterflies courting
Courtship is brief and simple. Watch the male fluttering round the female on the flower. She will give out a scent message which will tell him if she has been mated already.
No time to waste!
The female Marbled White does not waste time laying its eggs on individual plants. Its larvae feed on grasses, so it drops its eggs like bombs into the turf as it flies over!
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Other members of the brown family are equally unfussy – Ringlets and Meadow Browns squirt their eggs into the turf either from a perch or in flight.
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