Peru
Butterfly Mud-Puddling in the Peruvian Amazon
August 2004
The Peruvian Amazon supports an exceptionally diverse butterfly community. These photographs, taken in 2004, document groups of butterflies gathering on exposed, damp soil beside a river.
This behavior is known as mud-puddling. Butterflies use their proboscises to draw moisture containing dissolved salts and other nutrients from mud, sand, animal waste, or decaying organic material. Males commonly engage in mud-puddling and may use some of the acquired nutrients during reproduction.
The gathering includes butterflies with different colors, wing patterns, and forms, indicating that several species, and possibly more than one butterfly family, were feeding at the same site. Identifying them as a single “sulphur butterfly” species would not be supported by the photographs alone.
