These body-less wings (I arranged them) suggest a bird had foolhardily tried one. It probably didn't go for any more after that, as all the species in this group are toxic, I think. They don't kill - but birds try them, get sick, and learn to avoid similar things in the future.
Here is a common crow - a beautiful butterfly despite its apparently drab appearance in flight. These seemed happy to share communal roosts with blue tigers. These photos were taken in Mysore.
Plain tigers cruised around in smaller numbers, but commonly. This one was in the cemetery in Kolkata where my grandfather is buried:
The American/European monarch (Danaus plexippus) doesn't fly in India but a closely related species, the striped tiger (Danaus genutiae) does. I didn't get any good photo-ops with this species, but here's a record shot of one that settled briefly in the grass:
In general, these large butterflies were far harder to photograph than the small ones, especially as I had so little time and so much to do. I was lucky to get a brief photo-op with this tawny coster (Acraea violae) in central Kolkata:
This is a species commonly found in butterfly farms, I think. It was lovely to see it flying around in the wild!
Guy
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