March 2000 Butterflies do it backwards. Or so it seems. I'm not talking about mating, but about that essential pre-mating ritual, finding someone to mate with. In the insect world it's generally the females, which produce the irresistible pheromones and the males, which are drawn to it. So she sits still, and he does the seeking.
Butterflies seem to have inverted the natural order of mate location.
But perhaps I've got that wrong. Perhaps it's vice versa . If the African Monarch butterfly's mysterious wing pockets are full of pheromones, then it would seem that it's he who stays put and she who will do the tracking down. There are also butterflies that establish territories and actively chase other males out. Here the males stay put, and the females come looking.