Great Eggfly

The Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina ) is a common Indian butterfly which loves living in forests, but does not mind visiting that occasional garden. 

Males of the Great eggfly are supposedly territorial and pugnacious. The above photograph is of the upperside of a male while the lower one is of the underside. Like many other butterflies this one too has subdued underside and brighter upper sides (the ovals are iridescent blue); butterflies have this for a reason.

When the wings are folded together at rest, the subdued colours provide a camouflage. When disturbed, they open their wings and fly off, flashing their brilliant upperwing colour that momentarily startles the predator. This also gives the butterfly an opportunity to fly away and disappear among dried foliage, leaving the predator to search for a colourful butterfly.

The below are the photographs of the Female, which is a excellent mimic of the Crow butterflies ( see my previous post, to know all about mimicry)

Grey Count

Another royal visitor to our garden, the Grey Count ( Tanaecia lepidea ). It's not very frequently found in south India and I was quite lucky to have found it perched among banana leaves. 

It was quite dark, and I had to use the on camera flash to illuminate it, despite using a 400 mm lens. The flash barely illuminated the butterfly, but was at least enough for a steady hand held shot.

The royal butterfly had a graceful poise and flight. I see it spending most of its time in the dark confines of the banana trees. Hoping for some more royals in the coming days.

Glassy Tiger

The thirteenth butterfly in the 'Butterflies from my garden' series is the Glassy Tiger (Parantica aglea ).

This is quite a common butterfly in India, and it is mimicked by many other butterflies like the Tiger Brown, Courtesan male, Siren, Great Blackvein and female of the Common Wanderer. So why do the butterflies have this mimicry? This was nicely explained by Peter Smetacek in his book "Butterflies on the roof of the world" but to summarise ; Certain butterflies during their caterpillar stage feed on plant poisons, which are then stored in their bodies. During its adult stage this distastefulness is advertised by bright warning colours and patterns. Predators who catch and eat such butterflies experience a lot of unpleasantness like strong heartbeat and vomiting. The predator learns to stay away from such butterflies.

Some butterflies cannot digest and store the plant poisons, so these butterflies mimic the patterns of the distasteful species and survive on their reputation. They even have flight patterns that mimic these butterflies. The glassy tiger had acquired the toxins from the milkweed plant during its caterpillar days, hence its distasteful. Hence so many other species mentioned above imitate it.

Common Baron

Two butterflies that visit our garden are named after royal positions, but they mostly spend their time in our compost pit, and seem to enjoy the rotting garbage. One is featured today, the Common Baron ( Euthalia aconthea)

 The above and below photographs are of the female Common Baron and the last one is a male. The male resembles Chocolate Pansy featured a few post ago.

The Common Baron, loves places where crops are grown, enjoys basking in the sun and also our compost pit. 

The above photograph is of a male which is smaller than the female. Some  royals like the Common Nawab and the Tawny Rajah are enticed by rotting crabs and prawns. Lepidopterist's do have a sense of humour. 

Common Evening Brown

Butterflies come with all kinds of quirks, some love a good hot sunbath, while some like these Common Evening Brown ( Melanitis leda ) love some darkness in their live's.  

This butterfly is active at dusk, and I have seen it come home attracted to the light at night. They spend their day in the undergrowth and in our garden they prefer the bamboo grove. This was photographed there, at about noon, with the overcast sky providing a nice diffused sunlight. They seem to prefer overripe fruits or tree sap and I have yet to spot one perched on flowers.

Commom Awl

The tenth butterfly in the series, is the Common Awl (Hasora badra). Not very common, but found thorough out India. 

This little butterfly, is active early in the morning and late in the evening. Hence, the flowers it perches on are covered with early morning dew- providing wonderful photo opportunities.
One of the quick way to identify this awl is by the spot, other awls have a white band instead of this spot.
This is one of the few butterflies that visits this lovely buttercup flower.

Angled Pierrot

In field, I struggle to quickly differentiate the butterfly I posted in the previous post (Common Pierrot) and the one I am posting today, the Angled Pierrot (Caleta caleta). Check the spots closely between this and previous post to notice the difference.

This butterfly prefers places with heavy rainfall and is seen in abundant numbers during rains.