If you observe a butterfly that looks twice as large as normal fluttering by, take note. What you are seeing is often a pair of butterflies mating.

This afternoon when I returned home that’s just what caught my eye, two Small Whites, also known as Cabbage Whites, joined abdomen to abdomen, looking for a discreet place to stay coupled together for a bit.

The Whites flew from aster clump to aster clump, then to the lilac foliage before finding a hidden spot. A disrupter (male ) tried to break up the match, but the pair would have none of it.Males are mostly white except for the black dots and smudges of gray on the forewings. The females are similar to males, and also have some yellow shading with stronger gray stippling on the underside of their wings.