MikeOxon

[Padfield]

More fantastic stuff, Mike. I'm really enjoying these tropical pictures. I agree, it is amazing how common patterns recur even in quite unrelated butterflies.

More please!

Guy

[MikeOxon]

Guy, I'm amazed you found time to post here, yesterday, with a Berger's on your doorstep Hope you have another exciting day, today.

In response to your plea for more, here's a couple continuing the chocolate & cream theme. I feel that these should be easy to identify but, so far, I'm drawing a blank in my books and on the web.

Danum Valley, Sabah - 7th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/1000s@f/10 ISO1000

Danum Valley, Sabah - 7th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/500s@f/8 ISO1000

Any suggestions for ID will be gratefully received EDIT - Algia fasciata see below

Mike

[Padfield]

Hi Mike. Despite their seemingly quite different colours, I think these are both Paduca fasciata (=Algia fasciata - Algia seems to be the current name). Unless I'm wrong, it shows how deceptive photos can be, taken under different lighting conditions.

Guy

[MikeOxon]

Thank you once more, Guy. It is interesting that this didn't appear in my, admittedly, rather simple books or from searches such as 'brown, yellow, butterfly, borneo'.

Now you have put me on track, I can see it at http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/sp/ ... a-fasciata. From the illustrations there, I suspect my upper photo is female and the lower, male - the forewing markings are different. The underside in my photo looks much darker than in the reference but, as you say, photos can be very deceptive, especially when comparing well-lit upper surfaces with underwings in shadow.

I've also found another interesting set of books on the Internet Archive - Frederick Moore's Lepidopera Indica (in several volumes).

It's very tempting to send you all my remaining pics but I shall continue trying to track things down, because I'm sure I learn quite a bit from doing so.

Mike

[MikeOxon]

After a lot of head-scratching and sorting of photos, I've finally managed to post some photos from my tour of Sabah, last Autumn.

So far, I've posted selections of both butterflies and birds on my website at http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming ... ah2015.htm Other groups, including mammals, etc. will follow.

As usual, I welcome any comments or corrections to my identifications.

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

Lovely set of shots - and memories.

Some wonderful names there, for example Hairy Backed Bulbul almost seems to have been made up specially for the English speaking visitors. I wonder what it's called in the native language.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

Glad you enjoyed them, Jack. 'Common' names can seem very strange at times; my favourite was Jerdon's Baza.

Mike

[jenks]

That`s a great set of photos, Mike. Something for you to look back on with fond memories and for us to look at in envy.

Regarding bird names, I went on a safari to Kenya in Nov 2007. Whilst it was great seeing the mammals, I got a bit bored after 4 or 5 days seeing the same ones over and over again so spent a lot of my time searching for birds ( I had "The Birds of Kenya" Helm field guide with me ). The best bird, namewise, that I came across was the "Bare-faced Go-away-bird". It`s a member of the Turaco family. I think that name would take some beating !

Jenks.

[MikeOxon]

Thanks Jenks. It sounds as though you've had some good trips too. Now, who can come up with some extraordinary butterfly names?

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

Now, who can come up with some extraordinary butterfly names?

Peter Marren in "Rainbow Dust" touches on this. For example Duke of Burgundy

Jack

[MikeOxon]

I much prefer these cold but bright days, to the the rain of the past few weeks, even though it's definitely not butterfly weather!

One local sign of the mild winter has been unusually large numbers of birds that used to be considered 'summer visitors'. The local sewage works are a magnet for over-wintering Chiffchaffs - about 20 were present when I visited over the weekend, including 1 or 2 of the tristis race, known to birders as 'Sibes', because Britain is at the southern end of their range and they will return to Siberia for the summer.

Chiffchaff, Abingdon SW - 15th January 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150mm lens - 1/320s@f/5.6 ISO800

Chiffchaff 'tristis', Abingdon SW - 15th January 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150mm lens - 1/640@f/5.6 ISO800

Another sign of a mild winter was the large number of Goldcrests - these tiny birds are very vulnerable in a prolonged cold spell.

Goldcrest, Abingdon SW - 15th January 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150mm lens - 1/200s@f/5.6 ISO800

The annual 'Butterflies in the Glasshouse' event at RHS Wisley has now started, so I intend to visit soon for my mid-winter 'fix' of tropical species. After my travels last year, I have a better chance of recognising some of the species, this year.

Mike

[Goldie M]

Lovely shots Mike, I think I got some shots of a Tree Creeper today, sadly I only had my small lens with me. Goldie

[MikeOxon]

On Monday (25th January) I made my, now annual, visit to the 'Butterflies in the Glasshouse' event in The RHS garden at Wisley. My impression is that this event improves year on year, with a good range of species flying freely in an environment within which they seem to behave quite naturally.

This time, I went with the experience of having seen some of these butterflies in their home environment. It was, therefore, an opportunity to catch up with some of the species I had seen in Borneo and to see them alongside a range of their 'New World' cousins. The latter group seemed to be in the majority, led by the spectacular Blue Morphos, which seemed to be particularly active, with much courtship activity and groups of, sometimes 4 or 5, chasing each other around the glasshouse!

Morpho peleides, RHS Wisley - 25th January 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150mm lens - 1/250s@f/5.6 ISO400 (with flash)

It was also my first time in the field with my Olympus E-M1 camera (I had used the E-M5 model in Borneo) The results have given me considerable confidence in the capabilities of this camera, which provides DSLR-like image quality from small, lightweight equipment. Most of the time, I used the 40-150mm lens, which had proved very capable in Borneo, but I also tried my new 60mm macro lens for the first time.

The following two sets of photos show a selection of the species that I photographed. As in previous years, I found that the 'Spotter Guide' provided was far from complete and also has several typos in the species names. I've managed to put names to most of the photos but, as usual, welcome corrections and additions!

Click on group to enlarge

Click on group to enlarge

One rather spectacular species that I had not seen at Wisley before was the 'Automedon Giant Owl', with remarkable patterns on the undersides of the wings.

Eryphanis automedon, RHS Wisley - 25th January 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150mm lens - 1/200s@f/5.6

Finally, I used my macro lens to take some close-up views of one of the 'Pale Owls' feeding at one of the sugar stations. Conditions were far from ideal for macro photography and this shot was hand held, while amongst several other visitors. I particularly like the detail of the tiny claws on the ends of the legs!

Caligo memnon, RHS Wisley - 25th January 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 60mm macro lens - 1/125s@f/8 (with flash)

I rather enjoyed my brief return to the heat and humidity of the tropics.

EDIT with additions/corrections by Guy Padfield
Mike

[Mark Tutton]

Is that the head of a Gecko i can see on the underside of the Eryphanis automedon?
Remarkable!
Mark

[MikeOxon]

Thank you, Mark, for pointing that out! It's one of the most remarkable undersides that I've ever seen.

Mike

[Padfield]

Hi Mike. So, you've got the tropical bug!!

The unnamed species in your second frame are female Hypolimnas bolina (mimicking Euploea sp.), female Papilio dardanus, and probably a hybrid of Heliconius melpomene (see http://www.heliconius.co.uk/photo-pages ... ini-01.htm, for example). I think your Papilio memnon is more likely to be Papilio lowi.

Guy

[MikeOxon]

Many thanks, Guy - I've added captions to the relevant figures. I should have known the female Hypolimnas, since I saw both sexes of Hypolimnas misippus in India many years ago and read up about the combined Batesian mimicry and polymorphism.

From reading the RHS leaflet, I saw that the pupae come from a farm in Belize, which explains the preponderance of 'New World' species. It's hard to convey the brilliance of the large 'Morphos' but I made a short animation, from a series of photos, to show the 'shine' when the wing angle is just right:

Morpho peleides - Wisley 2016

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

....short animation, from a series of photos....

Please do that for Purple Emperor next summer. You would probably need to make your animation from a series of still photos as you moved position around the butterfly : from a fixed viewpoint, they don't readily show the changing purple iridescence.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

Thank you, Jack, I'll see what I can do! I managed to miss seeing any PE at all during 2015, so you have provided additional stimulus for me to try harden this year

Mike

[Padfield]

I made a tiny purple emperor gif back in 2001, when I hadn't worked out how to put video on my site:



It doesn't do quite what Jack wants - so I'll wait for Mike to come up with the goods!

Guy