Lady Diana Near the Bridal Veil Falls

Romance can be a funny thing. Sometimes couples are a matched set, hard to tell apart. Other times, one can only say, "They cannot be more different!" In the butterfly world, at least around here, the most striking difference is demonstrated by the large and beautiful Diana Fritillary. Last year we saw just one of the orange and brown beauties.  With some species one can tell the sex, often by judging the thickness of lines or the presence of small spots. Sometimes you cannot tell at all, visually. When we looked up the Diana, we were startled to see that the female looked completely different. She looked like a different species altogether, mimicking the Pipevine Swallowtail,  
And, according to Butterflies and Moths of North America, here is how courtship goes: "Males patrol for females in deep woods. Females walk along the ground laying singles eggs on dead twigs and leaves near violets." There is just one flight, or butterfly cycle, from mid-June to September. 
From the sound of things, our chance of meeting the bride was small. But on a hike to Bridal Veil Falls on the 15th, Rick was returning and saw a flash of purple in the woods thirty feet away. It was the elusive female Diana. Spectacular!

Then in a wonderful coincidence, when Rick was home in the afternoon, a second male Diana of the summer came to the garden, swooping down from a tree where it had been resting. 

What a rare thing to see both in one day, in different locations. We told him that his girl went that-a-way.