Butterflies at La Perouse Bay

On the last day in Maui, we drove south to La Perouse Bay to see what we could see. The beach here is very rocky, covered with lava. Amongst the lava outcroppings are these small yellow butterflies.

They appears to be after some sort of mineral in the sand or stone. They would stop very briefly to alight and then be back in the air fluttering about almost immediately.

They were pretty skittish and would quickly fly away if you got to close. Their bright color against the background of the black lava made a beautiful scene.

In the next image, I caught a few of the the butterflies sitting on the ground long enough to actually see what they look like. When they land, they fold their wings together vertically like one of the fighter ships from Star Wars.

After swarming about for 10-15 minutes, they slowly dispersed and went off to do whatever it is that butterflies do when we are not watching.