Spangles!

Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) feeding on butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
A number of complicated factors have kept me from posting frequently, and I even cut back on photography a little.  But that does not mean I stopped.  NPN has been one of the things that keeps me going.  One example is this photo.  Seeing some excellent photos of the great spangled fritillary in the Macro & Close-up Gallery made me remember how much I enjoy this species, even though I now spend very little time in the open habitats of this and many other butterflies.  On the way to one of my normal wooded haunts, I pass by a large cleared area, so I made up my mind to go there to try to capture the thing that I always liked most about this species -- the amazing silver spots on the ventral surface of the hind wings.  Surprisingly, it took quite a bit of time to catch a good specimen in the right light to show off the spangles.

Canon 7D Mark II; Sigma 150 mm. Macro + 1.4X TC (210 mm.)
1/1000 sec. @ f/8; ISO 640
Tripod used to steady the long lens for multiple shots.  
(There was a breeze, so this is a composite of 3 exposures in a rapid burst, so I could get more body parts in focus.)