Chasing Butterflies

Admiration for butterflies has long been my hobby. That is coupled with taking their photos whenever time allows. This hobby will not be complete without the other, as the fulfillment of being a butterfly hobbyist is having a lot of their photographs stored in your files. Some good shots are made into the owner's screen saver and others even have their favorite shots printed and laid in picture frames. Sometimes, a nice picture even makes a lovely greeting card for some friends. The possibilities of using butterfly pictures are endless, and fans range from children to the children once.

Other people with entrepreneurial inklings raise butterflies for sale, and even for export. These days, weddings, thanksgivings, birthdays, baptisms, anniversaries, you name it, and many affairs use butterflies as symbols of happiness. They release the butterflies at specific moment in the program to commemorate whatever theme they are celebrating. Release of butterflies can even signify many meanings, but mostly freedom, peace, tranquility, beauty, forgiveness, accomplishment, Every symbol for butterfly release denotes positive meanings, just as the flapping of the wings signify.

   

LIME BUTTERFLY, Papilio demoleus demoleus' COMMON MORMON Menelaides polytes ledebouria

My fondness for butterflies give an extra meaning for me. I chase them, photograph them in my garden, in our vicinity and in some undomesticated areas with the hope of documenting all the Species Total Count in our town. The happiness of finding one species not yet in the original list gives a certain high, a certain euphoria that might not be relatable for other people. I hope to publish the species photos in a book, but if it will not materialize, then at least others will find them in any other forms, when my curtain closes. At the least they are included in the website of Philippine Lepidoptera. I have them tabulated in matrix, alphabetically arranged with corresponding host plants for their larvae. They are all real as they are from my personal observations.

DARK BLUE TIGER, Tirumala hamata orientalis

LEMON PANSY, Junonia lemonias janome

 

\Those are just examples of pictures i recently took from the garden.  Since the pandemic i have not gone out of the house for any butterfly chasing in the vicinity. At least i have nectar plants intentionally planted to lure them in. And gardening for butterflies is another story.

PALE AWLET, Bibasis gomata lorquini

GLASSY TIGER, Parantica vitrina vitrina

Post Script: I have lots and lots of butterfly pphotos, but blogging after more than a year of not posting gave me lots of difficulties in picture layout. Oh My God i behave like the first time in 2008 when i did my first post. I hope i still regain my patience of repeatedly previewing, editing again and again. My finished post here is not to the best of my liking, but ....here it is, a new beginning!

Life Transformations unlike ours!

It is already very hot at the start of February, the temperatures resemble that of what were in April to May of the past years. Can you imagine 38°C immediately following the colder temps of 27C? The Easterlies Winds suddenly stopped, so our temperatures immediately sour to heights. Respiratory sickness is also on the rise, and that includes me. Last weekend colds and cough set in on Friday and the weekend was really bad. I know i need to rest, but because i am not used to sleeping during the day, i cannot sleep, and i cannot help not touching anything in my condo unit. So i clean the house a little, wash some clothes and cook. I guess that is not much to be stressful and weaken my situation. I also did some carrots and cucumber juicing which i still lugged to the office. I am still not well, but have to go to work.

My situation got worst because my airconditioning unit has to be pulled-out by the technician to be repaired. And i need to wait for maybe one week to have my room temperature be colder again. Oh life, how sad! But i will post my photos taken the other week when i was at home in the province.

I always leave house in the province at 6:30 in the morning to search for butterflies. I already have one area under some tall trees that i consider to be a "butterfly sanctuary", as there are always a few butterflies there, plus some bigger moths. Sometimes i go there after going to some areas, but this time i went there first.

ZEBRA BLUE OR PLUMBAGO BLUE

Leptotes plinius leopardus Schultze 1910 

Lycaenidae; Lycaeninae; Polyommatini

I have spotted this butterfly only a few months ago in another site, this time it was in the "sanctuary". I enclosed it in quotation marks because i just coined that word for this place. There were a few of them there, transferring from this broad-leaf weed to another clump of a white flowered weed. I never knew then what the weed's ID is. 

upper side of the female

female and male courting

Seeing a few of them there early in the morning gave me an idea that a host plant maybe nearby. They did not fly far from the area, only going back and forth to two group of plants. I suspected that they are the host plants, until i see one in action. One below is actually ovipositing on the cluster of flower buds.

caught in action, ovipositing on Plumbago zeylanica

can you see 2 spherical eggs, one on top more mature

I searched among the buds, in between them and in everything there. I was not able to see any larvae but a few tiny eggs, which my lens cannot capture well. Those protrusions on the buds are sticky and maybe they camouflage there perfectly, as the protrusions look like small eggs.

more scrutinizing gave me a pupa, side view, it looks like one of the protruding fruit of the plant

clearer view of the pupa side view, showing design of the wing, it hangs downwards

top view of the pupa, tail on top

a better view of the pupa

the blooming inflorescence of Plumbago zeylanica

It is difficult to see any pupa there without really looking intently. Maybe a magnifying glass will help, but i do not have it yet. I actually look at the picture in my camera to see whether i already got it right, then take lots of photos to choose better angles. My naked eyes, not so 20:20 vision, is not good anymore for their size.

Above is the thicket of the Plumbago zeylanica. Actually, i only realized the connection after identifying the plant, which came in a few days after. How clever, the butterfly is named Plumbago Blue. It is one of the blues and hosted by Plumbago zeylanica. 

Lastly, i took the pupa home to be sure if it is really a Plumbago Blue. Unfortunately, i forgot to take it with me when i left for the city where i work. Ialways texted my sister at home for the progress of the pupa. She just observed it got darker in color. Lo and behold, after a week of observation it eclosed, but when she was about to photograph it, it just duddenly flew away! She was disappointed too, but confirmed that what she observed is the same as my photos. 

Our World Tuesday

Nature Notes

Critters on my Hoya

Hoya ilagiorum is one of the most prolific of the hoyas. After the blooms dehisce, it starts preparing for the buds again, and in a few weeks blooms appear once more. It also has a slight aroma that is not actually bad, but not also very prominent to the senses. It blooms in the afternoon and remains open for 3-4 days. Some hoya species rest for a while from blooming, but this one never fails to delight us. And of course, its color is very attractive.

a typical Hoya ilagiorum umbel

last week i saw some flowers without the corona, or those whitish stars protruding from the corolla

I searched inside the umbel, and this very small larva about 2 cm in length is the culprit. I removed it and put in a farther place. Unfortunately, some chickens followed me and saw it. That was a food chain happening before me. 

The other umbel just newly opened, and this butterfly cannot resist its scent and nectar. The nice thing about this butterfly is its lingering habit, not always fluttering rapidly like the others. It is friendly to the camera and delightful for me. Idiopsis juventa manillana

Even if my time is very much occupied, if the butterflies alight on the hoya, i cannot resist taking their pictures. I felt like it was my reward for so much time devoted to the hoyas, neglecting to chase the butterflies. But if they are together, then i can have both in one shot, 2 birds in one stone!

Camera Critters
Saturday Critters

Butterfly Stages

My Christmas holidays started on the 23rd December and ended on January 1st. I had a series of 4 days each in the province, next 4 days returning to the city, and another 4 days in the province again. Of course, i spent most of these days looking for the small critters in the vicinity. Our area is still rich in biodiversity because pesticides are not used there, so i have lots of subjects to photograph.

We have a big golden shower at the corner of the street, which is constantly pruned because the branches grow very tall. The growing new shoots always provide a haven for some butterflies,  one of which is the common emigrant, Catopsilia pomona. I am glad that there are some larvae at the lowest shoots that i can photograph clearly while on the ground.

This is the branch which has not been fully eaten by the larvae. Other growths are fully defoliated.

A lot of newly hatched larvae can be seen under most of the leaves, defoliating most of them.

As they grow they change colors, I saw two different patterns or color of the larvae, the above is mostly green with black stripes at both sides. (Please notice that the pupa is at the right of the larva above).

The above is the more mature and larger of the green larva, while that at the bottom has wider black stripes at the sides and only a narrower brownish dorsal stripe along the length of its body. 

I watched and observed them a lot of times during the day. I could have taken a video and document the development, however it didn't occur to me at the beginning. So i just took pictures.

The head part is yellow, spared from the black color of the body. There are iridescent bluish dots on the black sides. At the start, i thought they are of different instars, but later i realized the black is the female and the green is the male. 

I lost the blacks during the night, maybe they went out to pupate. A lot of the larvae do not pupate at the host plant, and i didn't see any of them in the nearby plants. I actually wondered where they went. The above  larva is ready to pupate, and is just one of the two I saw in the entire plant. I thought they may have lost time to go away for pupation, so they might as well attach themselves to the host leaves. This condition was observed on 22 December.

I observed the ready to pupate larva, but i went to the house for a few minutes, and it is already a pupa when I returned. I was so disappointed with the sudden change that eluded me. This pupated on the afternoon of December 22.

When i returned to the province on the 29th December, the wing design is already visible in the pupa. On the 30th December i got the whole branch and put it inside a net cage in the house for easy observation.

The wing patterns become more visible but it looks more yellow than green. I am expecting that it will eclose soon, so I watched it most of the time. Eclosion is the process of the adult emergence from the pupa. My nephew and niece also watch it most specially when i eat or go to the toilet, or have to do something important. Three days later on New Year's Day, it's time for me to leave again for the city. It still has not become yet a butterfly. I was a bit frustrated because i cannot document the emerging adult. Besides, the free adults around us are very difficult to photograph, as they fly fast and do not stay long on the flowers enough for me to shoot. 

On January two, my niece texted that it was already a butterfly when they woke up. They were not also able to watch the eclosion process. They just said it is so beautifully yellow! I realized that what i reared is the female, more yellow than green. 

I guess the adults look like these (above and below), which are shot earlier from previous batches. Below is just a close-up with more details, but they are the same.

Both the above adults are males, which i took some other time in the past. I don't have the picture of the female yet, and  they are less in number than the males. Although I failed in some aspects of observation and photos, I also learned a lot. I am sure my niece and nephew also learned much from the experience. I hope next time i stay at home during long weekends, i will again have the opportunity and hopefully conditions be more serendipitous for me to record the process of growth and development.

Do you call these progress?

Let's get into some biodiversity!

I have a few caladiums now in our garden, nothing is bought but accumulation from a lot of sources. Even if they become dormant during our dry season, I always love them during the rainy months. They always provide beautiful cheerful colors, most specially when all the plants are left on their own. They might not be considered resurrection plants, but for me they are so! Their leaves will just wilt without fanfare, and will show up again coming rainy months.

But this year, they are subjected to total in-human, or shall i say, in-caladium treatment!  Last time I posted the remnants of another variety as an art, this time I am not happy with the artists anymore.

a newly emerging variety in our garden, only two leaves have emerged

Above is a very lively, beautiful growth. Despite its slow growth, the outcome is wonderful. I wait for two weeks before a leaf completely unfolds, and the above show is already more than 3 months old, with only four leaves produced. Wait till you see what is below!

 Here it is completely devastated overnight! For the first time they did that, i did not issue a warning. I just let them be because i did not see the culprit. Do you know what happens after two nights!

 These two are the thieves, they cannot anymore walk or crawl due to extreme glutony! I kept on touching it with a stick, but they didn't budge, they are too full to care what happens.

Only skeletons like this leaf is left on the younger leaves after 2 nights and 1 day. They really had a feast, and they feasted with abandon. Actually, i didn't get them out after one night to let them finish the whole leaves off. They don't look nice anymore, so i just let them to their hearts' content. I hope they get to be a wonderful, fat, big moth. And i further hope, they will show their gratitude by letting me see them before flying away. I actually haven't seen them as adults. 

Another incident is about our Cassia alata. This are the eggs i found three weeks ago. I actually loved the shadow these butterfly eggs created on that cassia leaf. 

 A small branch produced this flower buds, and the big branch sponsoring the butterflies look like this last weekend. Most of the leaves are gone, and some pupa are still hanging there. Some exuviae are also seen which means some butterflies already emerged. I didn't even see them hovering around.

A few larvae are still left, not yet pupated.  The pupa at right seem to show the design of the adult butterfly it will become. I can see the two dots and some margin for the wings. They are the small yellow maybe Eurema butterflies.

I am not so happy with their deeds, but am happy too that a lot of biodiversity are thriving and coexisting in our property. I am happy for them, because that just means our environment is still healthy for humans!