(Lunchtime in Villars yesterday)
I have been pretty busy with school since returning but had time to reprocess some of my India pictures. My favourite group of butterflies is the blues so I thought I'd repost some of those here.
In fact, the most exciting Lycaenid I saw was not a blue but a silverline (Spindasis vulcanus):
This beautiful creature is related to the Cigaritis species of North Africa, that feature tantalisingly in the European books, but in a different genus. It is a small butterfly but quite dramatic when you get up close.
The Zebra blue (Leptotes plinius), which featured recently on UK Butterflies as a mystery lep from Australia, is also dramatic:
It seems to be a common hedge blue all over India.
You don't see many typical Polyommatine blues on the subcontinent. Instead, every patch of rough grass is full of grass blues and their relatives. Of these, the commonest on my trips to India has been the dark grass blue (Zizeeria karsandra). Its haunts and habits are very similar to those of the African grass blue which many forum members have seen in Spain and elsewhere:
This is a tiny butterfly but even smaller is the tiny grass blue (Zizula hylax):
In 2010 I also saw pale grass blues (Pseudozizeeria maha) and lesser grass blues (Zizina otis). Zizula, Zizina, Zizeeria ... Must be some entomological joke.
I saw two species of Cupid - tailed blues in the genus Chilades. The small cupid (Chilades parrhassius) has three dark spots in a row at the base of the hindwing and one dark costal spot in line with the post-discal row:
The plains cupid (Chilades pandava) is similar but has four dark spots in the basal row:
The larger gram blue (Euchrysops cnejus) has similar markings but the costal spot is set at a distance from the discal row (a point I didn't notice until I got back home and needed a definitive way of separating my photos of gram blue and small cupid):
Two more very exciting blues - exciting because they feature in the European books - were the grass jewel (Chilades trochylus) and the African babul blue (Azanus jesous). These have been in my awareness since childhood but I've never before had a chance to see them. The grass jewel is a tiny blue that resembles the ubiquitous grass blues but reveals beautiful detail on the hindwing when seen close up:
The African babul blue is larger but equally nondescript until you get a really good view:
Finally, it was thrilling to see my first tiger blue, in the genus Tarucus. This is the rounded pierrot (Tarucus nara):
We often refer to the 'Latin' names of butterflies, though many scientific names of European species are Greek and retain Greek endings. The words behind the names of many Indian butterflies are not Latin or Greek but Sanskrit. Of those mentioned above, 'nara' (Tarucus nara) means 'man', 'maha' (Pseudozizeeria maha) means 'large' (correctly describing the butterfly) and 'pandava' (Chilades pandava) is a patronymic referring to the sons of Pandu, the heroes of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Being a sanskritist and Buddhist I'm hoping one day to go back to the Western Ghats, where my great grandfather lived and taught, and find the rare, endemic Papilio buddha!
That will be a special moment, if it happens ...Guy
it had me doubting my sanity the first time i saw one. Thank heavens for the intenet or i'd still be wondering to this day.