I visited the Someshwara National Park, Udupi distt with my friends to photograph butterflies and got some great lifers for me. The trip for two days on 12th Nov 12 and 13th Nov 12 was a memorable one and I am now sharing my butterfly observations:
Total species count: 110
My lifers: Malabar Banded Peacock (Papilio buddha), Common Mime (Papilio clytia), Tamil Lacewing (Cethosia nietneri), Banded Royal (Rachana jalindra), Dark Pierrot (Tarucus ananda), Pointed Lineblue (Nacaduba helicon)..We narrowly missed to click the Common Onyx (Horaga onyx). I personally failed to click the Plane (Bindahara phocides)
Malabar Banded Peacock (Papilio buddha)
The Malabar Banded Peacock was clicked by me at the Sammilan Shetty’s Butterfly Park at Belvae near Mangalore. Sammilan is really doing a commendable job by dedicating his private land to the cause of conservation of butterflies of Western Ghats. He has already recorded more than 100 species in his park and is continuously putting his best efforts to provide conducive environment to the winged jewels with LHPs and nectar plants.
Five-bar Swordtail (Graphium antiphates)
This beauty was the sole star in the midst of odd season mud-puddling of several hundred Common albatrosses (Appias albina), Common Blue Bottols (Graphium sarpedon) and Common Jays (Graphium doson).
Common Mime (Papilio clytia)
This Common Mime form clytia was another lifer for me at the river bed. It was also the sole butterfly of the species that joined the huge congregation of mud-puddlers.
Black Rajah (Charaxes solon)
This beauty of a fresh Black Rajah was attracted to the crab bait that was deliberately placed on the river bed to attract them. He gave us enough time and poses to click him to our satisfaction.
Tawny Rajah (Charaxes bernardus)
My joy knew no bound when me and Abhijna (our team member) saw this beauty posing solely for us in the absence of my other team mates. At-last we had a chance to tease our friends with this one.
Black Prince (Rohana parisatis)
This male was available to us for quite sometime and most of us got the open-wing shot of the beauty. This was another lifer for me. We did saw the female but failed to click it. Hope to get that next time.
Common Sergeant (Athyma perius)
This butterfly shared the space with other two commonly viewed Sergeant species available in that area (The Black vein Sergeant and the Color Sergeant).
Common Nawab (Polyura athamas)
We saw quite a few Common Nawabs on our trail along the upstream and photographed them on our wish. They, as we know, are fond of things that we excrete.
Tamil Lacewing (Cethosia nietneri)
The Tamil Lacewing is an endemic butterfly in the western ghats and was another lifer for me.
Lesser Gull (Cepora nadina)
The Lesser Gull is known to show a wide variety of wet season forms and we saw this common form of all mud puddling with the other butterflies.
Dark Pierrot (Tarucus ananda)
This little beauty was know to be rare a few years from now. However its quite common there and can be seen on the water logged roads. we saw quite a few of them.
Banded Royal (Charana jalindra)
This was a real lifer for all of us and I still feel sad that I could not click a better shot than this. This female was posing for us at about 10m above on a branch and just managed the get a few shots.
Indigo Flash (Rapala varuna)
The Indigo Flash female was seen laying eggs on a Fern species of plant. This behaviour was a real find for us.
