hello everyone, Thanks for your reply David. I find it truly fascinating that some of these species I've been seeing have such a wide range. I had no idea that evagore occurs as far north as Spain, so thank you for bring this to my attention. I'm going to return to the Nymphalidae and the the subfam...

Hi Pauline, Good luck with finding the grayling. Hopefully the weather does improve soon. It's also playing havoc with my work! Although today where I was working a few Holly blues, small coppers and purple hairstreaks were about to keep me company. I think all the peacocks would have come from all ...

Hello Paul, I've been following your diary for a while now and have found it truly fascinating. So thanks for sharing your experiences! It sounds like you have had a fantastic journey so far and congratulations on the latest developments! I bet you can't wait for 2024 :) Interesting to read your 'la...

Hi Pauline, Super to see a good collection of butterflies in your garden. It's the same here and the field below my house is absolutely full of peacocks. There must be a thousand or two and they are mainly nectaring on teasels. So good to see butterflies in numbers this season, but just hope the wea...

The African Orange Tip - Colotis evenina evenina is a very tricky butterfly to photograph and the butterfly pictured below took well over an hour to chase down. Our paths crossed on a hill top and when I was 'hunting' tips so I was determined to get a photo before the butterfly abandoned the hill to...

Hi Wurzel, Yes exactly! There's always change going on and it's very difficult to keep on top of these species and which forms are flying at various different times of the year. Add this to differing male and female design and it's quite a challenge to wrap one's head around. I spent many many long ...

It definitely is David! And I've only scratched the surface so far. When I start thinking about the biodiversity of the farm I realise my knowledge is almost zero! Just taking the insects as an example - I can safely say that not a day goes by when I don't see a new species! I'm going to carry on wi...

Hello, once again, Thank you for your positive comments. Its a very special to know other enthusiasts can appreciate some of the butterflies i've been fortunate enough to see. I was going through some photos from the farm so as a small interlude I thought I'd post some of these to give a another per...

Hello everyone, Thank you Wurzel, David, Paiuline and Neil for your recent comments. Really appreciated and nice to know some fellow enthusiasts are enjoying my diary! Perhaps Wurzel you could be in charge of naming butterflies because a I've noticed a few could be spruced up a bit to reflect their ...

The Pioneer Caper White - Belenois aurota , also known as the Brown-veined White is one of the commonest butterflies seen on the farm, particularly early season, when there is an annual migration of these and other pierids. 2022 was an extremely strong migration year with millions of butterflies pas...

Hi David, It's an interesting question and I imagine sodium and calcium might be two of the main attractants. The whole subject of what butterflies choose to consume is very interesting and one I would like to investigate more. I've noticed many different habits and preferences the butterflies in So...

Carrying on from where I left off last time with the butterflies which occur here on the farm – Next species is the Darker Commodore ( Precis antilope ) which this season has been seen in record numbers. Previous years it has been a very rare species with sometimes just a handful of specimens seen t...

Hi Mark, Maybe I should have used the term ecological abundance rather than biodiversity. I think the UK could be 'buzzing' if land management practices here were sympathetic to all living creatures. Hopefully in the future we'll see a reversal of trends as the realisation sinks in that working with...

Thanks for your comments Pauline and David. Glad you enjoyed the recent post. Pauline, I still get excited about the butterflies here - for instance the silver studded blues I've seen over the last few days are stunning little insects and every year when I see them a savour the moments spent with th...

Nymphalidae continued.. The Yellow Pansy ( Junonia hierta cebrene ) is another ubiquitous bushveld butterfly and can always be relied upon to pop up in most places on the farm, apart from the very heavily wooded and shady kloofs (valley bottoms). Settling in sunny spots and easily disturbed, Yellow ...

Hello everyone, I’m going to continue with the butterflies found here on the farm with members of Nymphalidae family, starting with a very common, and striking orange butterfly, the African Leopard ( Phalanta phalantha aethiopica ). Fast flying and rarely sitting completely still, it can be recognis...

Hi Pauline, Not long left here! Going to be a sad day to leave. Finally, yesterday, I found some Charaxes eggs of the pearl spotted Charaxes but unfortunately no time to keep hold of them! No photos of the monkey I'm afraid! He legged it too fast when he saw me looking at him! IMG-20230504-WA0018.jp...

The last Hairtail I’ve seen seems to be the Mashuna Hairtail ( Anthene dulcis dulcis) but without more upperside shots of the male I can’t be complete sure. The female of this butterfly is apparently is almost impossible to distinguish from females of A. otacilia otacilia and A. talboti which could ...

The butterflies are still flying in large numbers here on the farm, although over the last weeks I’ve seen considerably fewer individuals of certain species, while others, namely the tip have increased. At the moment it’s unseasonably warm and occasionally a little rain has been falling which I beli...

Thanks for your comments Neil, David and Pauline. Glad you are enjoying. Since I last wrote I've been fairly busy working on and around the house but have seen some beautiful butterflies along the way. Numbers are slowly falling as autumn progresses but there are still many around and some particula...