Butterfly Sightings

Odd Caterpillar Dances On Wings

Over the last three months some photography showcasing butterflies sighted when wondering around, I will try identify some, no promise at all.

Starting in the month of April 2023, butterflies being seasonal I have kept these in date order for reference.

Leptotes pirithous - One of the Zebra Blues Enjoying chickweed allowed to flower on the lawn,

Dark Blue Pansy Junonia oenone oenone male. Junonia oenone, the blue pansy or dark blue pansy, is a Nymphalid butterfly native to Africa

Emperor Swallowtail (Papilio ophidicephalus) sub-Saharan Africa

African Mother of Pearl (Protogoniomorpha parhassus)

African Mother of Pearl Source more of our local Butterflies

Month of May 2023

Zebra blues one of the species. Steve Woodhall Butterflies of South Africa

Garden Commodore - Precis (Junonia) archesia

Spotted Joker - Byblia ilithyia

Strength on new found wings gathering grace over a relatively short life, little "angels" playing, moving from flower to flower who doesn't enjoy watching butterflies come and go?

Natal Acraea Acraea natalica - Common along the eastern parts of South Africa.

Gaudy Commodore Presis octavia sesamus and natalensis

Butterflies in the month of June 2023

Tailed Black-eye Butterfly - Leptomyrina hirundo

Banded Gold Tip - Teracolus (Colotis) eris

Universal symbol of transformation and spiritual growth, dazzling once outside the cocoon, not desired by all when in caterpillar form chomping their way around. Fear not the growth of plants will appear once transformation happens, arrive back to assist pollinate in winged form.

Common dotted border Mylothris agathina agathina

Brown Commodore aka Brown Pansy

Don't kill your opportunity of attracting butterflies into gardens, by not using any form of pesticides or insecticides, plant indigenous flora. Attracted to range of colours from red through to purple, also enjoy some fermenting fruit leave a little mashed banana or finely chopped pineapple to invite nature back in.

Evening Brown Melanitis leda helena

Watering the garden leaving some small little puddles of mud, on occasion the might enjoy some minerals in the soil as well.

Soaring on gentle wind they lift our spirits often spellbound in the beauty I hope to have identified correctly, those wishing to assist let me know in the comments below.

Flying During July

Layman Amauris albimaculata albimaculata

Matsuo Basho, ‘A Caterpillar’.

A caterpillar,
this deep in fall
still not a butterfly.

The Japanese poet Basho (1644-94) is now regarded as the supreme master of the haiku or hokku form. In this three-line poem, Basho homes in on the development of the caterpillar into a butterfly, a development that is here arrested or withheld.

Haiku are always strictly speaking about nature, but of course, the poetic significance of the butterfly still struggling to be born, to grow and take its wings, can be extended to the pathos of all undeveloped promise, in humans as in insects.
Source - Interesting Literature

On that note, I love and leave friends in Hive for now, enjoying our Winter once again from Durban. An exceptionally cold spell went through leaving snow in areas that seldom see snowfall. No butterflies in rainy wet weather....

Not my photographs above, taken and posted within South African social media accounts then shared, our snowman...

AmazingNature with @bucipuci who kindly hosts challenge/contests regularly. My entry to Amazing Nature Contest: FREE TOPIC - #2/7/23

Photography all my own using Canon PowerShot SX 730 HS, words come to mind in reflecting last three months with butterflies coming and going.

Thought for Today: "It's the ugly caterpillar that turns into a beautiful butterfly after seasons." - African Proverb