Padfield

[David M]

After a day supping the dregs of the vendage, can these butterflies still fly properly, Guy?

[Padfield]

After a day supping the dregs of the vendage, can these butterflies still fly properly, Guy?

Hey, it's late October, the nights are drawing in and the mornings are freezing. They can be sensible and die of cold in a couple of weeks or they can live it up now, get blotto and keel over on a pile of grapes. I know which I'd do.

Guy

[David M]

Fair point, Guy. I've seen vanessids over here linger too long on a buddleia and end up flying away in a noticeable zig-zag, but I don't think I've ever seen a butterfly properly p***ed.

When I was living in Toulouse, I used to put porridge oats out on my window sill to feed the pigeons. I was given a rather unpleasant bottle of Tunisian spirits for my birthday (Boukha, I think) which I disliked intensely (tasted of meths) but not wanting to waste it I drenched the oats in it.

The pigeons could barely fly after a feeding session.

[Padfield]

I trust you're exaggerating, David! I know you're fond of birds and would never deliberately poison them.

This morning an eagle was circling distantly in a clear blue sky:



The day warmed up again, like yesterday, so in the afternoon I headed out to my nearest long-tailed blue site to see if any were still on the wing after the cold and snow.

In fact, there were no blues at all - just lots of red admirals and clouded yellows and a few walls. Then, to my delight, I spotted a female brown hairstreak - only my second of the year:



She wasn't anywhere near blackthorn and only stopped briefly in her restless search for it - so I soon lost her. A little later, I caught up with her again at the other end of the site, this time much nearer to blackthorn - though there's barely more than a bush or two on the whole site:





Very pleased to see her, I climbed to a local high point and looked down to see where there might be more blackthorn. I spotted a disused quarry and pedalled off there. It being Saturday, and Switzerland, the place was heaving with grimpeurs, including parties of children, so I didn't stay long - but a quick check was enough to find plenty of eggs on the very few, scattered blackthorn bushes:



One or even both of these next ones looks as if it might be parasitised:



I'll be back, on a weekday in winter, when I'll be alone!

Guy

[Padfield]

I forgot to mention - I found a few of these gelatinous, leech-like creatures on some sloe leaves:



Does anyone know what they are?

Guy

[Wurzel]

Cracking shots of the Brostreaks and Eagle That gelatinous blob looks like a snail that's lost it's shell Sorry that's as much help as I can be
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

That gelatinous blob looks like a snail that's lost it's shell

Is that possible? Surely the snail would die.

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. Golden eagles have an unparalleled majesty about them. I glanced up, saw that through the window, way, way in the distance and just knew it wasn't a buzzard - so I grabbed the camera and ran out.

The leechy things did look very strange, all exposed in the heat of the day - but there were several and none had any hint of a shell. You can see another curled up in the foreground of this shot (from which I cropped the first one, above):



Guy

[kentishman]

possibly pear or cherry saw fly larvae aka pear/cherry slugs

[Padfield]

Thanks Kentishman - that's the one!

I was Googling blackthorn and sloe but I should have been less specific. I'm pretty sure I've never come across these before, even though they're described as pests.

Guy

[Padfield]

With rain and snow here in Switzerland, I took another trip to the Papiliorama to spend a little time in the warmth with butterflies again! Very unusually for this country, every train I caught was 5-10 mins late, except the connecting services, which left on time (so I missed them). Bizarre.

Last time I went (14th October) there were a few monarchs around. Today I saw no monarchs but did find this monarch caterpillar (rather small and rather a long way away, unfortunately):



That is clearly one of the species that breeds independently under the dome.

There really are a lot of species in this butterfly house, which means you can wander around and around and keep coming across new things - with a sense of discovery, almost (but not) like finding butterflies in the wild. Here are a few of today's discoveries, followed by a set of unidentified ones that the tropical butterfly enthusiasts might like to help me identify.

There were a lot of this magnificent orange tip, Hebomoia glaucippe:





Inexplicably (because I was in a zoo), it was a real thrill to see these.

This next one is Catopsilia scylla, a relative of the African migrant:



And this is a white morpho, Morpho polyphemus:



Here is a chocolate pansy, Junonia iphita, that I last saw in the Chamundi hills of South India, though I remember someone on this site seeing one in Regent's Park back in September of this year ...



And I found this Dophia evelina very exciting to see:



There are about a dozen Heliconius species in the butterfly house. These are hewitsoni:



And here are three freshly emerged Heliconius doris:



When it flew, this Prepona demophon showed wonderful deep blue on the upperside, but it never settled with this showing:



Here is a Caligo species, which also shows deep blue in flight:



Hypolimnas bolina was never this obliging when I saw it in India:



EDIT : Whoops - I accidentally clicked 'submit' instead of 'preview' ... Oh well, it's late here so perhaps I should save the mystery butterflies until tomorrow night anyway! I took a lot of other known species too, but perhaps they can wait as well.

Guy

[David M]

We're so used to you posting images of butterflies outside of our season in the UK, Guy, but this autumn you've provided precious few.

Is it because the weather you're having is particularly abominable or are you very busy with other things?

[Cotswold Cockney]

Always pleased to see your stuff Guy. This one caught my eye:~



Bred demophon about thirty years ago. Prepona along with their even more fabulous close relatives, the Agrias species, are my all time favourite butterflies. Very large, powerful, beautiful scaled up distant relatives of our Purple Emperors.

Although I did not know why or what to do with it at the time, for mere interest I planted an Avocado stone which within a couple of years grew into an attractive house plant. I then discovered that it was a larval foodplant for Prepona. So attractive that when I told my good lady who meantime had commandeered the fine potted plant that I will use it to raise some special butterflies, she was not pleased.... However, I raised a small brood of Prepona demophon.

Fabulously fascinating creatures to raise and breed. Very impressive early stages. Prepona larvae when disturbed, adopt a stance which looks very like a snake's head! Had no idea of this defensive stance until I jogged the desk their foodplant was on when I was able to see it for myself. Would almost certainly deter a predatory bird it was that realistic. I also obtained captive pairings of them too. This digital image is a composite of four 6x4" prints I made back in the early 1980s. No digital stuff back then. Just old steam driven film and mechanical SLRs Minoltas...



2nd thoughts. Your Prepona may not be demophon but a close relative. The old memory is not what it once was but, there are a number closely related to demophon of similar appearance.

[Padfield]

David - I had to go back to Suffolk again, for family reasons - but in any case the weather here in Switzerland has been dire and I don't think I missed much. Yesterday I could hear the torrential rain beating down on the dome of the butterfly house and in places the humidity within the house was condensing on the roof and falling inside as rain - giving a real rainforest feel! I will get out to my usual autumn haunts when the weather improves, and I certainly expect to see Queens and clouded yellows for a while - but I'm not expecting terribly much, to be honest!

CC - thank you, as always, for your fascinating comments and remimiscences. I opted for demophon at least partly because this species is widely reared and often found in butterfly houses, but they do seem to have an unusually large range in the Papiliorama, and with their ongoing conservation projects in tropical countries (http://www.papiliorama.ch/CMS/default.a ... anguage=EN) might even have fresh input. I do sometimes wonder how much some of these species that have been reared continuously over many, many generations by humans might have diverged from their wild cousins. There is obviously selection at work - humans select the insects they breed from, or thin out the eggs or caterpillars - but it is not natural selection. Breeding also permits geographically improbable mixing of genes and races. But as I say, I find myself quite entranced when surrounded by these butterflies, whether they are in a tropical butterfly house or a street in Kolkata.

Guy

[Padfield]

A few more known species - then the mystery ones!

This is Atrophaneura aristolochiae - another species I have seen in India:



This is one of the 'roses' - a group of swallowtails with red on the bodies. In India, different species of rose are mimicked by females of Papilio polytes, but these always lack the red. I have only seen males of polytes in the Papiliorama.

Another Indian species, Graphium agamemnon - which I saw in the wild in a park in Mysore but never got quite so close to:



This is a female of the swallowtail Papilio lowi:



I photographed the quite different male of this species last time I was there (identified by Mark Colvin and Pete Eeles), so that is also, presumably, one of the 'wild' breeders:



Spot the butterfly in this picture:



This one stood out a little more, through no fault of its own!



I will probably never enjoy this sight in the wild - Morpho peleides spreading his wings:



So, now the unknowns:

No 1:



I didn't disturb it and don't know what the upperside was like.

EDIT : I've now done this one - it's Amauris ochlea (http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/but ... ochlea.htm)

No 2:



This, I believe, is a Satyrid of the genus Pedaliodes but can't find a really good match. It had a hint of blue visible on the upperside (I don't know how much there was) and at one point, in the dome, I thought this was Myscelia sp. but as soon as I saw a picture realised this was silly. Here is a different individual, showing that glimpse of blue:



No 3:

This seems to be another Satyrid - perhaps also in the genus Pedaliodes:



No 4:

This one might be Charaxes sp.



Any opinions gratefully received!

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

I think 2 is the Common Palmfly, a species I recognised from my trip to Koh Samui!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elymnias_hypermnestra

and I think #3 is also, since they don't always seen to have the spot on the hindwing underside:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76033499@N00/4130999570/

On to #4

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

That's the one, Pete! And it's in my Indian book (obviously), so I should have found it myself! That book also shows the plainer form, so I am happy 2 and 3 are the same species.

I have plenty of books on African butterflies, with comprehensive coverage of all species in West Africa, Tanzania and South Africa - so I hope the Charaxes will be identifiable from these.

Thanks again!

Guy

[Padfield]

For what it's worth, I think the Charaxes is a female C. violetta, from southern Africa. I spent some time researching it - and what a fascinating group this is!

Guy

[David M]

...Spot the butterfly in this picture:

That camouflage is so amazing I tried your 'challenge' on my work colleagues this afternoon.

Not one could see the butterfly and they were all amazed when I scrolled down to show them the next shot.

[Padfield]

Good on you, David, for spreading the word at work! Glad to have been of some help.

Guy