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Pale Grass Blue


Pale Grass Blue
Photo Information
Copyright: Foozi Saad (foozi) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 2791 W: 0 N: 6696] (25839)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2010-04-06
Categories: Insects
Camera: Nikon D90, Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG macro
Exposure: f/8, 1/50 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2010-05-03 3:06
Viewed: 2515
Points: 28
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
I captured this small butterfly in the morning right in front of my office. It was still relaxing.
This is an opportunity I cannot miss. Even with no tripod, low light I have to have it captured. Quite a difficult situation for smaller aperture.

From : Wikipedia
The Pale Grass Blue (Pseudozizeeria maha) is a small butterfly found in Asia that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.
Male. Upperside silvery light blue with a satiny sheen in certain lights. Forewing: the apical half of the costa narrowly and the terminal margin for varying widths fuscous black, bounded outwardly on the latter by an obscure anticiliary black line. Hindwing: the costa broadly, the termen somewhat more narrowly fuscous black as in the fore wing, with the width of this dark edging similarly variable ; in addition there is a very diffuse and ill-defined subterminal series of spots darker than the fuscous margin. Underside: brownish grey. Fore wing: a spot in cell, a transverse lunule on the discocellulars, and a transverse anteriorly inwardly curved series of eight discal spots, black; the transverse lunule and each spot encircled with a narrow white edging ; the posterior two spots of the discal series geminate. Beyond these are a postdiseal and a subterminal series of short transverse dusky black spots followed by an anticiliary black line; the ground-colour between the discal and postdiscal series and between the latter and the subterminal series of spots posteriorly paler than on the rest of the wing. Hind wing: a transverse, subbasal, slightly sinuate line of four spots, a short, slender, lunular line on the discocellulars, and a very strongly curved discal series of eight small spots, black; the lunule and each spot encircled with a narrow edging of white; the posterior two spots of the discal series geminate as on the fore wing; beyond these as on the fore wing there is a double line of dusky spots, only more lunular, with between them and between the discal and postdiscal series the ground-colour in the same way followed by slightly paler; an anticiliary fine black line. Cilia of both fore and hind wings whitey brown, darker anteriorly on the fore wing. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, shafts of the antennae ringed with white; in fresh specimens the thorax and abdomen with a little light blue pubescence; beneath: palpi, thorax and abdomen white.

Female Upperside: brownish black; the basal halves of the wings slightly suffused with light blue, anticiliary black lines on both fore and hind wings, and on the latter wing an obscure subterminal series of spots as in the male. Underside, similar,only the ground-colour darker, the markings larger and more clearly defined. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male, but with no blue pubescence on the thorax and abdomen on the upperside.
[edit] Dry-season brood
South Indian race laying eggs on Oxalis

Male upperside: pale bluish-grey with, in some specimens, a pinkish undertone. Forewing: as in the wet-season brood, but the black terminal edging much reduced in width in some specimens to a transverse, somewhat diffuse, very narrow band that borders the anticiliary black line on the inner side, in others to a much broader similar band that coalesces with the anticiliary black line and occupies about the outer sixth of the wing. This edging along the termen is sometimes even, sometimes it widens from a slender anticiliary at and above the tornus to a, broad black patch at the apex of the wing.
Mating pale grass blues in Osaka, Japan

Hindwing: the terminal black edging much narrower proportionately than in wet-season specimens, most often reduced to a slender black anticiliary line with a series of black spots on the inner side, bordering and sometimes coalescing with the line. Underside: as in the wet-season brood but the ground-colour paler, in some specimens much paler, the markings on both fore and hind wings similar, with frequently the terminal markings obsolescent, sometimes entirely absent or only indicated anteriorly on each wing. Cilia whitish. Antennae, head, thorax, and abdomen as in the wet-season specimens.
Upperside left, underside right, illustration from Seitz's work
Female upperside , illustration from Seitz's work

Female similar to the female of the wet-season brood, but more like the male, with the light silvery-blue suffusion very irregular, but generally extended much further outwards from the base. Underside: as in the male, the ground-colour slightly darker. Other variations exist:

In a female from Poona, now before me, the fore wing on the upper-side has the basal half silvery blue, the outer half black ; on the hind wing, however, the blue colour extends almost to the termen which is only narrowly edged with diffuse dusky black.
—C. T. Bingham

Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male
mwmod99, CeltickRanger, jlinaresp, mamcg, Jamesp, pierrefonds, boreocypriensis has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

What a pity that the focus is not covering well the all butterfly, Foozi. This image could easily be a masterpiece, and I am sorry for the missed opportunity here my friend.Superb colors and great white balance. Very impressive notes too! Well, may be next time, Fozi.
Regards,
George Veltchev

Ciao Foozi. Focus and details are good on the head. Anyway nice compo and intrigant playing of light.

Roberto

Hi Foozi,
Well balanced image with strong colours.Sorry about the wing movement, however an overall impressive image with the water droplets.
erwin...

  • Great 
  • briGG Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 195 W: 2 N: 344] (1823)
  • [2010-05-03 7:32]

Hello Foozi,

Excellent composition!
Great colors... Very nice macro, very fresh

TFS

brigitte

hello Foozi
super goodpose of this beautiful butterfly
nice details but a little more sharpness on the wings
greeting lou

  • Great 
  • nagraj Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1618 W: 106 N: 3208] (15166)
  • [2010-05-03 7:40]

Hi,
Beautiful species but too close and could have done better. I like the greens here. tfs.
nagraj.v

  • Great 
  • lousat Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 6525 W: 89 N: 15623] (65353)
  • [2010-05-03 8:14]

Hi Foozi,it's a nice pic but you could be better,the focus is perfect only on the face...and was a great moment whit these drops inside..no problem..the next time i'm sure to seea perfect pic as usual...ehhe..have a nice week and thanks,LUCIANO

hello Foozi

it is true that if you could focus all the butterfly
this photo could be a masterpiece with the POV on it
with the plant trunk and the water droplet
otherwise it is a very beautiful photo, TFS

Asbed

Ciao Foozi, a little lack of focus on extremity of wings, but delicate composition with wonderful drops, splendid blurry BG and beautiful natural colors, very well done my friend, ciao Silvio

Hello Foozi,
The picture has many quality, good color, excellent composition and good lighting. But the blur at the top of the wings, it is too noticeable and causes a certain loss of harmony.
TFS, Regards, Jesús

Hola Foozi

Bonita composición de esta mariposa con fondos de color verde y esas gotas de agua que le dan un buen detalle,

Vaya veo que tienes la misma cámara que yo y ese super objetivo, va de fabula.

Un saludo Antonio

  • Great 
  • mamcg Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 332 W: 12 N: 90] (9724)
  • [2010-05-03 21:31]

Ya Foozi,
Assalamualia kum wa rah math ULLAH hay wa bara ka tuhu,

Beautiful composition, that day I also tracked a butterfly but the weather was windy as I shot many but none was to my mood and these were blur at any end. Here aperture f/8 has not worked well as I see the wings are a bit OUT but the head portion is crisp sharp, I advise my fellow when they try to shoot macro the for the ease of depth, I say vertical..vertical..by this I mean to keep the lens vertical to subject to get more depth, no doubt it is hard to capture such tiny objects but you did well. TFS, regards.

Musa,

  • Great 
  • Jamesp Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1369 W: 9 N: 6334] (18906)
  • [2010-05-03 23:03]

Hi Foozi

Nice pov with lovely colours.

Best wishes

James

Hi Foozi,

The droplets of water are assets to the composition. The leave is framing well the butterfly. The close-up point of view is showing the details and colors of the Pale Grass Blue butterfly. The blurry background is putting in evidence the butterfly. The morning light is enhancing the colors. Have a nice day.

Pierre

Hi MF Foozi,

An excellent macro shot of this pretty b-fly. The BG separation realy wonderful here but i think it would be better using more deep DOF (more high f/ value) to keep the all parts of the beauty in focus, especially wings here.
TFS and have a nice day MF!
Cheers,

Bayram

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