Wisley "Butterflies in the Glasshouse"

[Philzoid]

Philzoid, those images are first class. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the compliment David . It was a particularly good morning last Saturday.

Thought I'd let you know that I have used the blowing technique to get the open wing (works with Kallima ... a little gentle but sustained 'blast' just to move them slightly and then stop and wait about 5 seconds or so and the butterfly will more often than not flash its upperside) The Blue-banded Morpho was a different proposition though. Don't think I'm going to get a good open wing achilles this year.


Phil

[Philzoid]

Despite three visits already the lure of another visit to the Wisley glasshouse was too strong to resist and cost me half a days annual leave. On the way over I bumped into Mark Colvin (or perhaps the other way around) and we stopped and enthused about butterflies, butterfly houses in general and getting that photo with the wow factor . Sadly that afternoon the wow factor picture wasn't quite achieved although I did get to see three new species for the season, one of which was a lifer . I also got as useful camera demisting tip from Mark ... "take it in the gents and warm it up under the hand dryer for a few minutes". Saves time and hassle at the other end ....simples!

On entry I was greeted with three stunning Blue-banded Morphos with a Common Blue Morpho tagging along and for a moment it felt like stepping into a tropical paradise . Although the Blue-banded were more numerous this time around, unlike their Common brother they were very elusive for the open wing shot .
On the monstera plant near the entrance there was a pair of mating Owls and close to that a pair of Common Mormons.

Mating Owls, a common sight but still being seen by many as a single butterfly. Fuji compact

Mating Common Mormons, female at top.

At the first feeding station a Malachite was imbing the juices and presenting everyone with a good photo opportunity.

keeping a lookout from his patch over the feeding station. Fuji compact

Malachite on sugar solution

Around the botton of the station was a Pink Rose, which eveyone assumed was dead but look to be in good nick. I went to pick it up and it clearly was alive and kicking. Putting it on the table it soon got back into feeding . I suspect that the fermenting fruit had alcohol content and the insect was inebriated. Later on it was doing a much better impression of having given up the ghost.

Down but not out, Pink Rose Swallowtail

The area of the glasshouse overlooking the lake brought my first heliconid, two Zebra Longwings, patrolling the ground cover Marantas and nectaring on their spindly flowers. If only I'd checked the battery on Izzy's zoom compact camera as well as my own

Reasonable camouflage amongst the Marantas, difficult photo for my zoomless DSLR

Also spotted along that area of glass were a couple of Golden Birdwings my second first sighting of the year. This was how I remembered them last year, up high against the glass . Mark did well to get his pictures (in his personal diary). This one pictured was along the bottom of the glass so I nipped over took this picture before anyone spotted me (easy to do on a weekday, far fewer people there than on the weekends).(Later on I got to see one nectaring on hibiscus, but it flew off, quite high with a few wing beats interspersed with gliding).

Golden Birdwing.

On the rock wall on the upper level beside the lift was another Golden Birdwing (female) and an Emerald Swallowtail a species I last saw a fortnight ago.

Emerald Swallowtail

Then I got a sighting of Great Orange Tip flying by . Fortunately it landed, a bit out of reach but I was able to get this shot . The first time I've ever seen this species. Nearby was a pair of mating Scarlet Swallowtail .

Male Great Orange Tip (at last)

Scarlet Swallowtail. Males are similar to Great Mormon

I then bumped into Colin Knight (or he recognised me ... I'd already challenged one bemused chap with a case of mistaken identity so I wasn't going to jump in readily again (only one camera on display Mark: t'other in his pocket )). Colin had some good kit to take pictures and had seen most of what I had, and one species which I hadn't: an Autumn Leafwing . Later on I was able to find my 'own' Doleschallia, looking like an odd dead leaf on an airplant overhanging the pool. Too far away though for a picture although Colin may post. Kallima was very much in evidence although where is the paralekta female

Kallima on the goodies table. Pink Rose now totally paraletic

Almost a good picture. Have some work to do with the DSLR

Other species seen:- King Swallowtail; Great Mormon quite a few which were mud-puddling along with Common Mormon); Asian Swallowtail; and Tree Nymphs.

King Swallowtail. (Photos never seem to do this species justice)

Common Mormon. One of the mimic females (I think) similar to the male?

Tree Nymphs in a favourite spot

Not seen this time were African Swallowtail; Clipper (brown or blue forms); Tailed Jay; Malay Lacewing and Diadem or Great Eggfly. Not seen this season:- Bat Wing or Big Billy (Atrophaeura semperi) and Glasswing (Greta oto) . Not seen ever: Postman (Heliconius melpomene) .

Finally I thought I'd finish with Blue-banded and Common Morpho for an underside comparison. Apologies for poor DOF focus.

Achilles foreground with peleides in the background.

Apologies if this is starting to look like a personal diary.
Will try and squeeze one more trip in before its all over.

Phil

[David M]

Thanks particularly for that image of the Pink Rose, Phil. I'm pretty sure that's the first photograph I've ever seen of a p****d butterfly.

[Lee Hurrell]

Pink Rose now totally paraletic

That really made me laugh!

[David M]

Pink Rose now totally paraletic

That really made me laugh!

It has absolutely passed out, hasn't it?

Wonder if they get hangovers?

[Philzoid]

Wonder if they get hangovers?

I was getting second thought as to whether they actually do get drunk (insect physiology being different to vertebrate) so I googled it and found a website which said they did and then they proceded to describe it as: "wasps feed on rotten fruit a lot and afterwards you can easily get stung - like a little guy starting a fight in a pub" .

Some insects like some humans it seems, just don't know their limits .

[Wurzel]

That shot of the Orange-tip is an absolute peach and well worth the wait you've had!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Philzoid]

Thanks Wurzel.
It was worth the wait although at one point I was beginning to wonder whether they were just added to help fill out the brochure. As it's the only representative from pieridae, it adds a nice different splash of colour .

It would like to know why this particular species is chosen for butterfly houses. Whenever you see butterflies in 'jungle' environments on TV its always sulphurs from that family, masses mud puddling. Perhaps they are not as adaptable to their artificial environment as Owls and Morphos and Mormon swallowtails appear to be?

[Philzoid]

With the butterfly event at Wisley set to close after the 26th Saturday was my last opportunity to see the missing species on my list and to improve on some of my pictures. So far all my visits had revealed something new and this visit was no exception.
Numbers of visitors were down but thankfully the butterfly numbers were still healthy particularly the Morphos and Owls A Emerald swallowtail low down on a rock wall presented easy photography to all visitors who snapped away with their big medium and small cameras plus mobile phones.

Emerald Swallowtail, stayed in hte area for at least 3 hours.

Another of my favourites, the Malachite was plenetiful too. From some of the pictures I've taken they appear to keeping a lookout with their head turned and eye cocked so to speak. This is not the case as a closer look shows the 'other eye' to be the proboscis.

Malachite open wing

Malachite, (taken with Fuji compact at full zoom)

A single Indian Leaf presented itself too, by landing on a Lady's arm . She was then 'forced to remain' rooted to the spot while one person after another came to take a picture . The open wing was one of my better Canon shots of paralekta.

Indian Leaf taking up a camouflage vantage point

Kallima paralekta flashing his colours

I was also treated to better sightings of Golden Birdwing, which unlike previous visits were found flying among the plants rather than congregating on the glass.

Golden Birdwing female

Golden birdwing male

The hindwings of the male appeared to be folded yet this was not evident in flight. I briefly considered it may have folded up its hindwings in the same manner as some beetles do under their elyctra, but dismissed this idea as butterfly wing veins are not flexible. This deformity was probably acquired when the wings were pumped up after emergence.

The Owl butterflies I observed with open or part open wings all revealed a slaty blue purple shade on the forewing. Those seen a couple of weeks ago had buff coloured forewings. In addition the underside of their forewings appeared similar to their hindwing and not pale and less marked like that shown on the listed Caligo memnon.

Caligo memnon Pale Giant Owl underside

Caligo memnon, Pale Giant Owl open wing

Looking into it further I have tentatively concluded these new ones are Caligo eurilochus.

Caligo eurilochus Forest Giant Owl

Caligo eurilochus Forest Giant Owl open wing

Searching the internet doesn't clarify it. It seems Caligo memnon may be a subspecies of the telamonius group found in Mexico; Central America and North parts of South America. Eurilochus is from a different sub-group with a range that overlaps with telamonius. Taxonomists as ever are in disagreement and the literature stuff is too hard for me to understand . On top of that many sites make basic errors by showing pictures of Morpho undersides and call them Owls .

Perhaps Guy or Mark may be able to shed some light?

The (Forest Giant) Owls weren't the only newcomers. I came across this little fellow and realised he wasn't on the hand-out list (free on the last day if you ask nicely ) despite many saying it was a Zebra Longwing. I had an inkling of what it might be and was soon able to confirm that he, was actually a she: a female Orange-banded Shoemaker

Catanophele orites, Orange-banded Shoemaker female

This species was actually on last year's list and back in January I photo'ed the male of this sexually dimorphic species.

Male Orange-banded Shoemaker

So, were these two new species added later to make up the numbers, or even the outside chance that the ObS was a product from last year? ... probably not.

So ends Wisley's 2012 butterflies in a glasshouse event. With so many fresh specimens still flying around I hope they will allow them to live out their short life span (up to 6 weeks is it for Owls?) or ensure they go to a good home (another butterfly house) or am I being niave.

Phil

[Wurzel]

Some cracking shots there Philzoid the lighting on the second Malachite is stunning!

Have a goodun
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Philzoid]

Thanks Wurzel . That picture came out better than I expected as it was shot at relative distance (about 6 ft away) using the fuji compact on full optical zoom (x 10). Most of the butterflies were taken with both cameras (Fuji and my new Canon DSLR) and the compact (in my hands and in my humble opinion) outperformed the DSLR, 2 to 1 on auto settings. Despite the IS and holding the camera as still as possible, getting pin sharpness is the main issue (although the Canon will also occasionally over-expose giving 'bleached areas' too) . Despite the evidence I'm hoping not to to have to purchase and use a tri-pod. Better light out of doors and judicious use of the manual settings (faster shutter speed and ISO may get round this).
I'm taking in my secondhand sigma zoom lenses to Jessops this weekend to see if they can 're-chip' them and cure the problem of them not working out of doors.

[David M]

I had an inkling of what it might be and was soon able to confirm that he, was actually a she: a female Orange-banded Shoemaker

You could easily be forgiven for thinking those were two entirely different species.

[Philzoid]

You could easily be forgiven for thinking those were two entirely different species.

Yes, the patterns are quite different but the wing shape is more or less identical. Interesting name too, the orange band we can see but shoemaker

[Mikhail]

You could easily be forgiven for thinking those were two entirely different species.

Yes, the patterns are quite different but the wing shape is more or less identical. Interesting name too, the orange band we can see but shoemaker

It's probably not relevant, but an Afrikaans word for butterfly is skoenlapper, which means shoemaker or cobbler. Don't ask me why they call them that.

Misha

[Padfield]

Interesting.

It is possible butterflies are identified with the dancing elves that helped the shoemaker in the Grimms' fairy tale. In Afrikaans the word might have attached to all butterflies, while in English it is restricted to just some species.

Guy

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Phil,

I'm glad to see you managed a final trip to Wisley before the exhibit's closure.

Looking into it further I have tentatively concluded these new ones are Caligo eurilochus.

I think you are correct with your determination of Caligo eurilochus. As I'm sure you will have gathered from your own investigations, there are numerous species in the genus Caligo and, to keep things interesting, a number of possible subgenera. I do know that Caligo memnon, eurilochus and atreus, the Yellow-edged Giant Owl, are all available to butterfly houses in the UK. It is my understanding that the first two have both been supplied to Wisley.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

[Philzoid]

Thanks for your input guys. Searching the web I saw another explanation alongside the Fairytale one of a reference to the shape of the wing which appears similar to the wooden forms used by shoemakers to create new shoes. I could see how this might apply to Catanophele, but there are a number of species (central-South American) with the shoemaker name ... perhaps some influence from the afrikaans general name.

Thanks for the Caligfo confirmation Mark. Hope next year's event is as least as good as this year's with a few surprises thrown in. Looks like Colin got to see the (a) female Orange-banded Shoemaker too as it's shown in his Postcards from Sussex website.

Phil

[Colin Knight]

Phil, that was a great observation about the additional Owl species. I checked my photos from the last Friday and noted that all my Owls were Caligo eurilochus, so thanks for that. Unfortunately I didn't see the male (orange) Shoemaker, but Mark did on the Tuesday so perhaps you are thinking of his great photo (am I jealous? YES ).