www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Wurzel wrote:Is it just me but are the butterflies more approachable at this time of year too?

They are as approachable as they ever get as they just want to fill up their reserves before finding somewhere to hibernate. They're not even bothered with courtship, as 40 Red Admirals on a single buddleia bears testimony to.

Now that I am having to scrape ice of the car windscreen in the mornings, it is always a pleasant surprise to see a butterfly. A Red Admiral is still visiting the last flowers on the buddleia and this afternoon I saw a Small Tortoiseshell in a sunny spot near North Berwick.

NickMorgan wrote:Now that I am having to scrape ice of the car windscreen in the mornings

Aaah, the joys of living on the east coast of Scotland!!

Still t-shirt weather down here....as long as you don't mind getting wet.....

Cold and frosty this morning, a light, cold north wind and sleet and hail showers. Much of the day was sunny, though and I was surprised to see a Red Admiral fly across a track in front of me this morning. It was 5 degrees at the time! I suspect that will be my last butterfly of the year.

I thought I should try my hand at photographing some garden birds to keep me occupied during the winter. I haven't done very well so far as the birds seem to be a lot more nervous than butterflies! As soon as one flies, they all take off! The limited light seems to be the biggest problem just now, but it is fun to have a photographic challenge again! Hopefully the sun will shine next weekend and I will have a little more time to try for some pictures.

Very envious of the first of your "garden" birds Nick!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Just back from an amazing two weeks on St Lucia in the Caribbean.
Although this was a family holiday to a resort I still managed to see a number of butterflies. My ageing father took me, my wife and kids there, which was very generous of him. His need for constant attention limited our exploration of the island, but I can't really complain!!!
Before heading off I did my usual research into what butterflies I might see on my holiday, but I was amazed at how difficult it was to find much information. I managed to buy a used copy of Norman Riley's Field Guide to Butterflies of the West Indies, but this was published in 1975, so much could have changed since then. Further internet research revealed that Butterflies of the Caribbean was written by David Spencer Smith in 1994, but the only copy I could find for sale was almost £2,000!! My local library eventually managed to get a loan of a copy from Cambridge University Library, which I was able to read at the library, with strict instructions not to take it out of the building!! I spent several lunch hours writing copious notes from this book during the two weeks it was available to me.
The best web site I could find about butterflies in the area was Focus on Nature Tours' web site http://www.focusonnature.com/CaribbeanB ... esList.htm. This lists all of the butterflies that occur in the Caribbean and beside each has a code for which islands they occur on.
I also spent a long time e-mailing various individuals and organisations in St Lucia, but amazingly no one was able to give me any information about butterflies there. The only person who was able to help me was a professor in Canada who had studied beetles in St Lucia and he sent me a list of the butterflies he had seen.
Using the above sources, and also searching Flickr and other web site for pictures of butterflies taken in St Lucia, I put together a list of butterflies that could occur in St Lucia. There were a total of 67 species on the list, but further research showed that one of them was a single record from 1913 and various others were rare vagrants. I think that there are probably about 50 species of butterflies regularly occurring on the island, which is amazing given that it is only 27 miles long by 14 miles wide!
Of course, I had no idea if December/January was a good time of year for butterflies, or how localised any populations may be.
The temperature varied between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius while we were there and it was very humid. There was a constant breeze making it very pleasant. There were regular heavy downpours, usually in the early hours of the morning or in the late afternoon. None of the showers lasted very long and the ground quickly dried up again. Most of the time it was sunny, with the occasional cloud.
I was delighted that when the sun shone there was usually at least one butterfly to be seen flying past. The problem was that they did tend to just fly past and rarely settled! It seemed that the larger the butterfly the less likely it was to land and many butterflies seemed to hop from flower to flower only settling for a second at a time, which was not long enough to try to take a picture!
The first butterfly I was able to photograph was a White Peacock, Anartia jatrophae jatrophae. I was surprised how small this was (about the size of a Green-veined White) as I had expected it to be about the same size as our own Peacock. It is missing a bit of its rear wings, but it turned out to be the only one I saw during our holiday.
The White Peacock was being harassed by a Great Southern White, Ascia monuste eubotea. These turned out to be the most common butterfly that I saw. They had amazing bright turquoise clubs on their antennae. The Great Southern White was easily confused with the Tropical White, Appias drusilla comstocki. To make matters worse, the Tropical White occurs as a wet season or dry season form and the males and females differ. So the upper side of the wings can be anything from completely white, to yellowish, with either a very narrow grey margin or a lot of grey! They also have some turquoise on the antennae, but not as pronounced. There are also five larger Sulphurs occurring on St Lucia. They vary from orange/yellow to pale greenish/white. For me it was impossible to identify anything until it landed, which didn't happen often. Even when they did land, I found it difficult to know what they were without taking a picture and then studying it with my old book.
The most common yellow butterfly seemed to be the Apricot Sulphur, Phoebis argante argante. Along with the Great Southern White, there would rarely be a sunny moment when there wasn't one flying in view. I leaned that the only way to get a picture of these was to watch them when the sun was about to go behind a cloud and wait for them to settle. They usually disappeared into the vegetation, but occasionally they remained in view.

The Large Orange Sulphur, Phoebis agarithe antillia, was incredibly similar to the Apricot Sulphur. They are very slightly larger, but the main difference is the extent of the kink in the brown line of markings leading from the apex of the fore wing. The Large Orange Sulphur was also inclined to settle high in the trees, rather than in lower vegetation. The Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae sennae, was a lot easier to identify. It was quite large and bright yellow. It would flit from flower to flower, rarely settling for longer than a second, managing to frustrate anyone trying to take a picture!! I did manage the odd shot, but it never settled at a good angle! It seems that there are six different species of Eurema occuring on St Lucia. Eurema are amongst my favourite butterflies. They are mostly bright yellow with black markings on the upper side of their wings and I find their diminutive size very endearing. The Pale Yellow, Eurema venusta emanona, seemed to be the most common one I saw. I really love these! The Pale Yellow must be a little smaller than our Common Blue butterfly. I was surprised to see this one behaving a bit strangely on a flower one evening, but then noticed that it had become the victim of a little Orb Spider. Later I found its discarded body on the ground below the flower. This poor picture is of a False Barred Sulphur, Eurema elathea. I had expected these to be more common, but this is the only one I am aware of seeing. I also saw some Little Yellows, Eurema lisa euterpe, but didn't manage to photograph one.
The picture below intrigues me! I think that the black mark at the top of the wing is because a bit of wing is missing, showing a mark from the upper side of the other wing. Even so, there appear to be no markings at all on the under side of the wings, so I can't be sure what it is. Unfortunately, I couldn't get close so this is the best picture I could manage. I will have to do a little more research to see if I can identify it. There are 13 different species of whites and yellows and very often I saw one flying past that looked as though it was a slightly different shade of yellow or cream. I think that to seriously try to identify them it would be necessary to take a net and catch them, although there are very few places where this could be done without permission.

There seem to be two different blues and six different hairstreaks occurring on St Lucia. I didn't manage to spot any hairstreaks, but there were a few Hanno's Blues, Hemiargus hanno watsoni, flying around the resort we were staying on. These were really small and difficult to spot, but at least they allowed you to approach them fairly easily. These are so small - about the size of our own Small Blue.

The other blue I was was the Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius chadwicki. When they were flying they actually looked like a white butterfly as much of the upper wing is white. I had expected these to be really common from what I had read on the internet, but I only saw two individuals. There was a lot of Plumbago growing at the resort and in the towns, which I thought would have been covered in Cassius Blue, but that wasn't the case. Maybe it would be different at a different time of the year. On a few occasions I saw a Buckeye. Both the Caribbean Buckeye, Junonia evarete michaelesi and the Mangrove Buckeye, Junonia Genoveva occur on St Lucia. I think it was the Mangrove Buckeye that I saw each time, but I find it very difficult to tell the difference between the two species. It seems that until recently they were thought to be sub-species of Junonia evarete. It was interesting that the one I saw at our resort didn't settle for long at all, but later during our holiday we did a Segway trip near Rodney Bay, where I saw several of them just sitting in the grass drying themselves. It makes me wonder if the plants in the resort were treated with insecticide or something to make them less attractive to insects. There could be up to 21 different Skippers occurring on St Lucia. I only managed to identify three, although I saw a lot more that just didn't stop to let me see them!
This one is a Southern Broken Dash, Wallengrenia otho ophites and it seemed to be the most common Skipper I saw. Again, they rarely settled at our resort, but this one was happily sitting on a flower on our Rodney Bay trip. The guide was starting to get a little tired of my jumping off the Segway to photograph butterflies by this stage, so this one was quickly snapped!! The other Skipper I managed to photograph was the Canna Skipper, Calpodes ethlius. This was on some bougainvillea at the resort in an area they say was planted to attract to attract butterflies. The other Skipper I identified was the Common Long-tailed Skipper. Sadly I didn't manage to photograph it.
It seemed that the more spectacular butterflies were less inclined to stop for a picture. Amongst those I saw were the Gold Rim, Battus polydamas lucianus, a dark, tailless swallowtail, the Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui (it gets everywhere!!), the Julia Heliconian, Dryas iulia lucia. This is a beautiful bright orange long wing (I think Wurzel has a picture on his Personal Diary). They would fly around tantalizingly close to me, one time circling my feet, but just never seemed to stop! Another common orange butterfly was the Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae vanillae. Again, these are really beautiful, but I didn't see one land at all. I also saw a Monarch, Danaus plexippus megalippe. This is a sedentary sub species that occurs in much of the West Indies. It is slightly different in appearance from the migratory Monarch, but of course, I didn't see it for long enough to notice!!
During a trip into the rain forest I only saw two butterflies - a Cloudless Sulphur and a Great Southern White. Not surprising really, I suppose, as there were not as many flowering plants as there were in the more inhabited and coastal areas of the island. However, I had thought that I may have seen a Leaf Wing or Menstra in the shade of the trees. Certainly the best area I explored were the tracks above Rodney Bay. It would have been good to have had more time to explore such areas.
St Lucia comes highly recommended. I have never been to such a lush vegetated place. There are plenty of areas to explore, although you have to have permission before entering any of the trails in the rain forests. Looking at the excursions that were offered from our resort, it is possible to visit the botanical gardens, a few large estates where cocoa beans are grown or where you can explore the native flora and try out native fruits and plants. I am sure if I had been to any of those places I would have seen more butterflies.
I'm certainly not complaining, though. It was lovely being there. Such a beautiful island, but much of it completely unspoilt. The people there are so friendly, too. Don't expect anything to be done in a hurry, but it will be done with a smile!
Another time I would love to hire a car (which would be an adventure in itself!) and explore more of the island. The Segways were great fun, but my 14 year old son demonstrated how it is possible to run yourself over with one! I am sure the scars will eventually fade!

I really enjoyed looking at these, Nick. Yes, Eurema are lovely little butterflies, found throughout the tropics from the Americas to Australia, via Africa and India. In India they flutter ineffectually around most bushes in grassy areas, hiding in the shade in the heat of the day. But your pictures of the blues are what excite me the most! What a great trip.

Guy

Thanks Guy. I was surprised that there are only two species of blues found on St Lucia, but I was pleased to find them both. It is interesting that Leptotes seem to have carved themselves a niche in most continents. I remember you seeing a species of Leptotes in India and I have seen pirithous in Mauritius, the Canary Isles and Europe.
Blues are what usually does it for me, too, but for me they are just pipped by Eurema. I am sure that is mostly novelty value, though. There is certainly a lot more variety amongst blues.

Some absolutely cracking butterflies Nick! The Buckeye is cracking but I was most impressed by the White with the turquoise antennal club. You start looking at it and it doesn't appear to be much and then all of a sudden the blue catches your eye almost out of nowhere, ace!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel. Yes, it was amazing seeing so many new butterflies. It would have been nice if some of the more colourful ones had stopped for a picture, but I can't complain! It's funny that the two butterflies I expected to photograph were the Julia Heliconian and the Gulf Fritillary, as I had seen so many pictures of them on the internet. It was great seeing them fly past, though!

Sitting here with a cold and a sore back, watching the snow come down outside, I thought I would put some on pictures of birds that I saw in St Lucia. It seems amazing that I was there only 9 days ago!! I am not an expert birder, so some of my identifications could be wrong.

This is a female Carrib Grackle. I took loads of pictures of males, but deleted them from my camera, thinking I would get a better one later on our holiday. Now I find I don't have any. The male is completely black with bright yellow eyes. They seemed to be the St Lucian equivalent to starlings and a large flock of them constantly checked out the dining area at the resort, taking the opportunity to steal a bit of dropped food or sachet of sugar! They were the most common bird on the resort and made quite a bit of noise. The other black bird was the Shiny Cowbird. This was a little smaller than the Grackle and had an amazing iridescence to its feathers varying from blue to purple. I was very surprised to see that Cattle Egrets wandered around the grounds of the resort, quite unconcerned about the people there. They were to be seen all over the island on any open ground. I was surprised to see a Black-crowned Night Heron at the resort when I crossed a bridge. At first I was concerned as I thought it had a bit of plastic around its neck, but later discovered that it was its long feathery crest! I was surprised when this flew across the path in front of me and landed in a tree. I had never seen a bird with a badger's head before! Turns out to be a Yellow-crowned Night Heron. It was fantastic to see Humming Birds all around the island. There are three species occurring on St Lucia, the Purple-throated Carib, the Green-throated Carib and the Antillian Crested Hummingbird. They were very tame, very rapid and often had me fooled while I was searching for butterflies. I didn't notice any Purple-throated Caribs, but I saw plenty of the other two. I took hundreds of pictures and most of them turned out to just be green blurs! Another of my favourites was the Lesser Antillian Bullfinch. The male is black with a red chin, while the female is various shades of brown and grey. They seemed to occur all over the island, but not in great numbers. They would make quick assaults on the dining area searching for crumbs. These two were photographed at a feeding area in a rain forest visitor centre. There are several species of doves and pigeons on St Lucia, although I only noticed three. The most common at the resort was the Zenaida Dove. They had a lovely patches of purple iridescence on the sides of their necks. There were a number of Collared Doves at the resort. They don't appear in the book I have, and I guess that they are the same species as we have here and they have been introduced. My favourite dove was the Common Ground Dove. This was only a little larger than a sparrow and they tended to go around in pairs! The Bananaquit was a noisy little bird. It seemed to compete with the Gracles to see who could make the most noise and it was just as inquisitive. Another bird that I saw regularly out to see was the Magnificent Frigatebird. Unfortunately I didn't think to try and take a picture of one! Surprisingly, for and island, I didn't see any gulls and only one wader which I was told was a Yellowlegs! There were a lot more birds that I saw, but I have no idea what they were!
It was amazing how tame the birds seemed to be there and considering that I didn't specifically look for them I was surprised how many I saw.

A few other bits and pieces of wildlife from St Lucia. Everywhere I went I saw lizards sunbathing or scurrying off into the undergrowth. I thought that I recognised two distinct species, but now I think they were both the St Lucian Anole. Apparently this is very variable, and it occurs as a brown lizard in dryer areas and green in wetter areas. This is one I saw at the resort. And this is one I saw on a building in the rain forest. This is a little gecko that lived in our bathroom. It was only three or four centimetres long! There are a few other species of lizards including whiptails and an iguana, which lives in the dryer north west of the island. Apparently the iguana can grow up to six feet in length. It would have been interesting to have encountered one of those! Frogs were also abundant and were the noisiest thing about after dark making regular peeping noises. There are also introduced giant Cane Toads there, which grow up to about six inches long. Cane Toads seem to be regular victims on the roads. The only wild mammal I saw was also sadly squashed. It was an opossum that we found at the side of the road during an early morning walk.

Just about everywhere you looked there were holes and piles of soil. These were created by land crabs. I think they are the St Lucian equivalent of moles! They seemed quite variable in colour. I spotted the caterpillars on the first day of our holiday at the resort. I was amazed at their size - about 9 centimetres long. Each day they grew bigger until they were about 20 centimetres long and then they disappeared. I don't know if they had gone off to pupate of if a gardener had decided that they had eaten enough of the plant and had dispatched them. Checking the internet since we returned home it appears that they are Frangipani Hawkmoth caterpillars. The moth is disappointingly dull compared to the caterpillar!

Really lovely pictures, Nick. I have a sneaking suspicion you will go back there one day ...

I hope the cold clears.

Guy

Thanks for posting these, Nick. I've really enjoyed looking at them (especially the humming bird).

The humming birds were amazing little things. Here is one having an early morning shower under a spray from a leaking pipe. There was also a large brown butterfly at the same spot, but it flew off before I could see it properly! I would certainly love to go back some time. It is the sort of place that I could explore for weeks, enjoying the diversity of plants and animals, the lovely landscape and friendly people!

Lovely shot, Nick. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a humming bird actually perching before.

Last Saturday my son and I visited Butterfly and Insect World, just outside Edinburgh. It is the perfect antidote to a cold February day after several months of butterfly-less-ness!!
The place isn't enormous, but there is plenty to see for the enthusiast or casual observer. As well as a large greenhouse, full of plants and ponds where the butterflies fly, there is also an area with reptiles, tarantulas and other insects.
You can buy a small Guide to Tropical Butterflies, but it doesn't cover all of the butterflies that can be seen there. I suppose the species that can be seen depend on the chrysalis available. I think I have managed to identify them all correctly, but I would be happy to be corrected if I have any of them wrong.

A pair of Blue Morpho butterflies, Morpho menelaus. The upper side of their wings are an amazing blue colour, but of course you can only see that when they fly. One of these was roosting high in a palm tree and another was flying around it. I switched my camera to take a video and almost immediately the male landed and they started to mate.

This is a Banded Purplewing, Myscelia cyaniris, from Central America. Its wings had an amazing purple sheen, depending on how the light hit them. It would land, flick its wings open a couple of times and then close them to roost. The underside of the wings are a dull brown pattern. I didn't manage to capture the colour very well and because it was never still the picture is a little blurred.

This is a Cattleheart, Parides lysander, which is found in much of South America.

A Clipper, Parthenos sylvia, from South-east Asia.

I think this is a Doris Longwing, Laparus doris, from Central America.

And this is the upper side of the Doris Longwing.

One of my favourite butterflies there was the Glasswing, Greta oto, which occurs from Mexico to Panama. There were quite a lot of them flying around the display.

This is a Goldrim, Battus polydamus, one of the butterflies I saw in St Lucia.

I am pretty sure this is Hypolimnas bolina, the Mimic. The markings on the upperside of the wings is very different from those on the underside.

This is Hecale's Longwing, Heliconius hecale, from Central America.

This, I have discovered is a Jazzy Leafwing, Hypna clytemnestra. The upper side of the wings is mostly black, with a white band.

This is a female Low's Swallowtail, Papilio lowi, from the Philippines...

... and this is a male Low's Swallowtail.

One of my favourite of all butterflies is the Malachite, Siproeta stelenes, which occurs in Central and northern South America. I only saw one of these at the display and it seemed to like perching high in the vegetation.

A Postman, Heliconius erato, from northern South America.

A Purple Mort Bleu, Erphanis polyxena, from South America. These had lovely purple upper wings.

A Tiger Leafwing, Consul fabius, from South America.

The Tree Nymph, Idea leuconoe, from South East Asia. There were plenty of these drifting around Butterfly World.

This is the Variable Cracker, Hamadryas feronia, which occurs in the southern USA and northern South America. This one came down to feed on some bananas, but it normally rests flat against tree trunks.

Just before we left we saw a Monarch, Danaus plexippus. Whenever I have seen these in the wild I have always thought they were large butterflies, but in the company of the other butterflies here it seemed quite small!


I struggled to get sharp pictures of some of these exotic butterflies in the Scottish gloom! I was impressed with the number of different species on display. Initially when we arrived, I thought there were only ten or so species flying around, but the longer we stayed the more we spotted. There were other species that I didn't manage to photograph. I only saw one example of many species, but I am not sure if there were more hiding amongst the vegetation.

There were also a number of chrysalis on display waiting for future butterflies to emerge. I'll put some pictures in a separate post.

I saw my first East Lothian butterfly of the year today. A Small Tortoiseshell enjoying the sun against a wall a short walk from the village. Not much sign of any flowers nearby, so I hope it finds plenty to eat.

It's the first of April and I can't believe that I am meant to be starting my Butterfly Transect this week! I think it will be a long time before we are having temperatures of 13 degrees and above. It is now almost a month since I saw my only UK butterfly of the year and the weather has been hovering around freezing since. Yesterday was the first day in 16 days when we haven't had snow here!

So, to keep myself going I thought I would add a few pictures of chrysalises I saw on our recent visit to Butterfly and Insect World. There is an area where they had rows of chrysalises on canes waiting to eclose or emerge. Unfortunately, there were no names on the canes, but there were a couple of freshly eclosed butterflies and there were a couple that I managed to identify afterwards from the internet. However, there are still a few I can't identify.
There was such an amazing array of shapes and colours.

These are the chrysalises of the Tree Nymph, Idea leuconoe.

I had thought that these were the chrysalises of the Monarch, Danaus plexippus, but I am grateful to Kirsten from the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida, who identified them on my blog. (If you haven't seen their blog, I would highly recommend that you take a look - http://lepcurious.blogspot.co.uk/) Kirsten informs me that these are in fact the chrysalises of Queens, Danaus gilippus. These were about 20mm long. I love the row of golden dots around the top, just like a golden zipper! I had been concerned that out of 20, or so, chrysalises only two were green, with the others being a buff colour, but Kirsten assures me that this is normal for Queen chrysalises.

This Owl butterfly, Caligo memnon, had kindly just emerged, allowing me to identify the chrysalis!

Similarly this Cattleheart, Parides lysander, was still pumping up it wings.

Judging by the chrysalises above I thought that this was also a Cattleheart. Kirsten has suggested that this looks more like a Polydamas Swallowtail, but it is very difficult to be more specific than that as the chrysalises of that group of Swallowtails are so similar. I am sure that she is right, as this chrysalis was on a different stick from the Cattlehearts and looking again, I can see that it isn't the same.

And now for some chrysalises I can't identify. I have no idea what these are!

Or these! Kirsten has suggested the Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes.

This is a fantastic chrysalis, looking like a variegated leaf. I would love to know what butterfly it will turn into.

Here is a Blue Morpho, Morpho menelaus, eclosing, being closely watched by a Glasswing, Greta oto.

Here is a Goldrim, Battus polydamus, illustrating a bit of a concern that I have. The bamboo canes that the chrysalises are attached to are very smooth and difficult for any butterflies to grip onto. My son and I were looking at a Blue Morpho that had dropped to the ground while its wings were still soft. Luckily it found a rock to climb up to allow its wings to harden. While we watched it climb the rock this Goldrim dropped to the ground and its wings flopped over as it walked along the ground. I bent this fern leaf over and it immediately climbed up it, allowing its wings to straighten and dry out. I think that it would be better if they were to roughen up the canes with some sand paper before they stick the chrysalises on to give the butterflies something to grip onto.

I was also slightly concerned that the chrysalises were within easy reach and it would be easy for kids to poke them or any newly eclosed butterflies. I suppose this can't be a problem, or they would have changed how they display the chrysalises. Actually, the last time we visited Butterfly World the chrysalises were all behind glass, so it is a big improvement to be able to get a close look at them.

I find the whole process of caterpillars turning into chrysalises, then turning into butterflies really fascinating. For me, the range of chrysalises at Butterfly World was just as interesting as the butterflies themselves.