Note on photo above: Great eggfly in the sky...
2 Days
I am 2 days away from no longer being in my 20s! YAAAA~~~ *screams of horror*
I wish being 30 came with benefits. Like you get two vices with turning 18 and 21 but you don't get any 'privileges' from turning 30. Sigh.
Note on Plain Nawab: I clomped on in my heavy boots till I was somewhere around where Mr and Mrs Gandalf lived. And found to my surprise a Plain Nawab sitting on dog do. Eee~~... but yet amazing. So I laid down on the dog do laden grass and fired away at it. Later... I made faces at myself for doing so but it's not everyday you get a puddling Plain Nawab. So heck!
The Small Window
Today was one of those rare small windows when the sun was strong enough and the butterflies were zipping around in gay abandon. Blue skies, white clouds and plenty of Commanders and amazing clusters of Miletinae all along the different sites I walked from morning till afternoon.
Note on photo above: Laying eggs? Or just being finicky? Just being finicky actually. Cos it's male.
Momentary elation
I confused the Common Tit with the Hypolycaena thecloides thecloides which I'd only ever shot in Semakau and was momentarily overjoyed until it flashed its blue upperside and then I was stuck in the patch trying to get an upperside shot of that strong inky blue.
Note on photo above: Trees were flowering in many places and with them came hordes of fighting and fluttering. The Autumn Leaf is a fast flyer and the Chocolate Pansies couldn't keep up with it... but they ardently chased it around anyway...
Good Patches
There were patches of activity everywhere. I came across 3 of the Autumn Leafs and plenty of Lascars, with 1 particularly large one which eluded me persistently and lead me along the path to this very tattered Flos Apidanus.
The Commander Baby (Caterpillar)
Note on photos above of Commander: I'm sorry to say that the caterpillar of one of my favourite uncooperative butterflies look like poop.
I came across what I thought was dried bird poo at one point but realised the bird poo was alive when it raised its tail (see Moduza procris procris (Commander) caterpillar body photo above and note the narrower end) at me like a snake about to strike.
Said pose should have an effect of frightening people away... were it not for the fact that it's so eeny that it looks like a worm raising its head to look at you.
And then it should probably have used its head cos it has such a scary face reminescent of the scaly faces in alien movies.
Note on Beast above and Blonde Beauty below: A face to scare all suitors away... ROAARRRR goes the scary caterpillar...and then it sulked disappointedly when I didn't go away.
The classic case of the Ugly Duckling who grows up to be a beautiful fast flying colourfully laced Commander and the fluffy blonde moth caterpillar below who will eventually become a shadowy, unremarkable looking, possibly short lived moth.
Tholymis Tillarga
I encountered my first not so commonly seen dragonfly in a long time. For the past months, the only uncommon dragonfly I'd come across was the white-mouthed Pseudothemis Jorina.
This is a male. Females are much paler. And check out that beautiful wing veination.
Because of the rains, sites typically trodden bare have been left undisturbed and I was surprised to find some places now overgrown with plants again. And even the flies seem to be much bigger too. Eek.
Eggflies in the sky are a good thing. Especially if the sky is blue. The eggfly agrees and therefore it took about 10 monopod prods before it condescended to a lower perch for this shot to be taken.
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Kari
Tony