The problem with being a “Little Game Hunter” is that there are other “Little Game Hunters” lurking around you.
Take today. Please.
During my “Bug Break” this afternoon, I stepped into our pollinator garden intending to capture a few images of butterflies in flight with my trusty Nikon and zoom lens. In anticipation, I set the shutter speed at 1/4000 of a second.
I photograph insects. I don’t poke ‘em, prod ‘em, or pin ‘em. I just photograph them.
Ah, look over there! A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae! (Note: That’s the focal point of UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Art Shapiro's "Beer for a Butterfly" Contest. The first person to collect the first-of-the-year cabbage white butterfly--live--in Sacramento, Yolo or Solano counties wins a pitcher of beer, or its equivalent. Suds for a bug.)
But back to today. This particular cabbage white butterfly, looking very much like a princess in her long flowing white gown, touches down in our flower bed and begins nectaring.
Got it! Ah, Here ya go, Art! Here’s a pic for you!
I grab more images as The Princess flutters from flower to flower. I am clicking at 1/4000 of a second, anticipating her next move.
And then, something black flashes across my path and my butterfly vanishes. Literally.
My tuxedo cat had come out of nowhere (where she usually comes from) and grabbed it in flight as I was trying to photograph it in flight. And then she quickly ate it. Head, thorax, abdomen and wings.
Whoa! Hey, that’s MY butterfly!
Not any more. Beat ya to it!
Her name is not "Hunter" or "Professional Exterminator Extraordinaire" or anything like that. She is Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout, a one-year-old tux that we adopted last year as a kitten. Her mother was feral.
Every day Miss SSCT just lounges around in our yard until her curfew. And no, desite her name (Shel Silverstein’s character), she does not take the garbage out. She takes butterflies in.
What I learned today
- My cat is faster than I am in catching insects in flight.
- She does not need an insect net.
- Her catch rivals Dwight Clark's"The Catch"
- She ignored my rule of “don’t poke ‘em, prod ‘em or pin ‘em” and added a culinary note: "Catch and eat."
- My cat was not hungry. She had just polished off a plate of turkey bites, Meow Mix and Tempations before nailing and devouring my butterfly.
- Birds, spiders, wasps, lizards and frogs eat butterflies. So does my cat. .
- She is unlike a praying mantis that eats only the head, thorax and abdomen and leaves the wings. She eats the wings, too.
Question: Why did Miss SSCT eat my butterfly? (Well, in its larval stage, it IS a pest of crucifers, so there’s that).
Second Question: Will she eat my cherished monarchs (when and if they come?)
Third Question: Does she eat other insects? Is she an entomophage?
Fourth question: Did we misname her? Should it have been "Miss Butter Flutters" or "Miss Lepidoptera Lover?"
Probably. On second thought, maybe she's practicing to compete in Art Shapiro's butterfly contest...