Common Five-ring

Nymphalidae; Satyrinae; Ypthima stellera stellera Eschscholtz 1821. I took these two pictures, yesterday morning when there were one or two butterflies sitting on plants in our backyard. They were sitting with their wings wide open and I got the impression that they were warming themselves in the morning sunshine after a night of torrential rain. Usually, when I see a butterfly with wings full open, I am happy because that position generally makes the best photo for identification purposes, but not in this case. This is a Common Five-ring and the dorsal view (with wings full open) looks very much like the Common Three Ring. However, just after I took the first picture, the butterfly closed its wings just long enough for me to get another picture, then it took off and I lost sight of it. The second picture is the one which makes identification certain. When I first became interested in butterflies, I did not understand exactly how to tell the difference between the Common Three-ring and the Common Five-ring. So, just in case you don't know how the rings are counted, its as follows: Look only at the rings on the underside of one hindwing. Then you should see two very small rings (often joined together) at the Tornus. They count as one ring. Then you count the other larger rings which are counted separately (joined together or not). If the total is five, then you are looking at a Common Five-ring. Don't be confused by the rings on the upper surfaces of the wings - the number of spots can vary.