Pararge aegeria (Linnaeus, 1758) - Speckled Wood.
As far as I remember from a digest in a Russian popular journal "Science and Life", it was found out that this species exhibits a kind of justice. Males of many butterfly species, especially Satyridae and Lycaenidae, occupy individual perches and try to chase out any invadors, their maches as well as birds and other larger creatures. P. aegeria lives under the forest canopy, its males occupy illuminated spots on the ground and try to chase other males passing by entering into a mutual swift and rolling flight, after which one male returns to the spot while the other escapes. It turned out that most frequently the returning male is the same male which occupied the spot before the encounter, not "the strongest one". The authors were said to speculate that as light spots are numerous and are not a limited resource the butterflies can afford themselves "to be fair". But I have no idea what for and how such a fairness could have been established. I believe the human altruism and sociality was of advantage in a Darwinian sence in early hominid evolution, while justice appeared much later as their extension in a creature having already acquired an intellect. Nothing similar can be imagined for butterflies.
Range: Europe, Asia Minor, Syria, Central Asia.
ssp.: tircis Godart, 1821; range: Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Central Asia.
A male; wings open.
A juniper/oak parkland on the Black Sea coast at the settlement Simeiz, Crimea, Ukraine. 29th June 1991. O. Kosterin.