It is indeed amazing what you can find in the most ordinary places around this huge city. Many of the plants that host good numbers of butterflies don't actually look that exotic, though of course they are different from our native European species.
This morning we took the students to the Buddhist caves of Kanheri:
As that picture suggests, it was wonderful country for butterflies but my place was with the guide (the lady in the picture), helping her explain the history and mythology of the caves, and I wasn't able to devote more than cursory attention to the insects. Great orange tips (Hebomoia glaucippe) drifted past, as well as yellow orange tips (Ixias pyrene). There were plenty of common grass yellows (Eurema hecabe) and gram blues (Euchrysops cnejus) lurking by the paths, as well as lemon pansies - almost the only species at the caves I was able to photograph:
I also found my first skipper of the trip, this huge fulvous pied flat (Pseudocaledenia dan):
Another species I did get a poor shot of was a common bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon) that flew just as I ckicked the shutter:
Hypolimnas misippus was common, as was the species the female mimics, Danaus chrysippus, but I couldn't get a shot of either. Common mormon (Papilio polytes) was another swallowtail. I saw males and either several females or several of the species it mimics, the rose swallowtails. Other species near the caves were the common wanderer (Pareronia valeria), the Indian monarch (Danaus genutia), Euploea sp., Hypolimnas bolina and common sailors (Neptis hylas), looking in flight exactly like European gliders of the same genus.
This is a common castor (Ariadne merione):
This rather tatty individual is still a mystery to me. I'll identify it at leisure (unless someone reading this diary can tell me what it is). It looks most like a large tortoiseshell (but isn't one).
We left the Buddhist caves and visited a Jain temple, where I was also unable to photograph butterflies.
Finally, we dumped the kids in a western shopping mall, which is their natural environment, and I scouted around the verges by the carpark for butterflies. That proved to be very productive. I saw many plains cupids (Chilades pandava)...
And also small cupids (Chilades parrhassius):
EDIT: I've been analysing my pictures on return from India and this one doesn't show
parrhassius. I do have other pictures of
parrhassius from the trip, which can be seen here:
http://www.guypadfield.com/smallcupid.html. I'm not 100% sure what the butterfly in this picture is.
This is a gram blue (Euchrysops cnejus):
A zebra blue (Leptotes plinius):
And the last blue today, dark grass blue (Zizeeria karsandra):
A peacock pansy (Junonia almana) flew in and briefly allowed a shot of its leaf-like underside:
I saw my second species of skipper for the holiday. There were several small branded swifts (Pelopidas mathias) perching momently then zooming off places:
This Colias sp. has so far eluded identification:
I say Colias - but it might prove to be a species of Colotis. In fact, I think it may well be Colotis amata, the small salmon Arab. I have quite a good book with me but a much older and more comprehensive book back home in Switzerland.
Here is a common grass yellow (Eurema hecabe):
Finally - with all these butterflies you would expect a predator or two to be lurking in the bushes, and thus it was:
Guy
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