Last week I observed an interesting behavior in swallowtail butterflies. I know very little about insects so it is possible what I observed is very common. There was a dead butterfly in the road and upwards of 8 butterflies were flying around it in a way that can be interpreted as mourning. There was one individual in particular who stayed near the dead swallowtail. It circled around the lifeless wings, seemed to nudge it once or twice, flew around it(never going more than a foot away) and repeated the whole process again. The images are of this individual with the dead butterfly and another flying around it(top) and of the individual on one of its flights around its dead companion(bottom). There was no aggressive behavior observed.
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