Dear All,
Birds are a little bit on the quiet side at present, but the start of
June was sunny and dry. The remarkable rainfalls have not surprisingly
helped a rise in the number of insects, and butterflies are looking to
have a very good dry season, although the weather has suddenly turned
unseasonally cold and gloomy the past few days with the sun just a
memory!
Here are the interesting butterflies in the past week or so, at least
interesting for the paddock.
Looking at the images line by line…

[first line] POINTED CAPER WHITE Belenois gidica above and below…we
have had three recently and only two before.
CRAWSHAY’S CAPER WHITE Belenois crawsahyi there have been three
recently but it is not that uncommon and I must have seen over thirty
here by now over the past fifteen years, however this is way out of
the species known range.

[second line] JOHNSTON’S ACRAEA Acraea johnstoni, this female six days
ago was our first ever.
ANT HEAP WHITE Dixeia pigea, we see annually in small numbers but
greatly outnumbered by charina.
SULPHUR ORANGE TIP Colotis eucharis above and below, this female has
been here the last two days. Seems to have more orange in the tip than
most females. On the same day we had only our second SALMON ARAB
Colotis amata but I never got an image. The a male Sulphur Orange Tip
appeared looking as fresh as the female.

[third line] DUSKY ACRAEA Acraea esebria, one has a territory along
the hedge, and is only our second the first was last year in exactly
the same place.
DARKER COMMODORE Precis antelope last week was our first ever.
RED-LINED (WHITE-SPOTTED) COMMODORE Precis limnoria was on the same
flower the day before and our first ever.

[fourth line] FALSE SWIFT (SKIPPER) Borbo fallax has me confused. In
Larsen it gives the impression it is rare and few specimens from
Kenya, but it is by far our most abundant borbo this year up to
fifteen a day, and often to the exclusion of any other borbo species.
MALLOW SKIPPER Gomalea elma is our first ever.
SCARLET TIP Colotis danae, we have only had two in the past and this
year four including both sexes

[fifth line] CUPREOUS BLUE Eichochrysops nandinus was only our third
and blues are not very impressive at present.
DIMORPHIC FLAT (SKIPPER) Eagris nottoana, only our third in the
paddock, and to the right our fourth in the lounge! Against the window
you really can appreciate the hyaline spots.

[sixth line] LARGE STRIPED SWORDTAIL Graphium antheus was a surprise,
we have been having very good numbers of policenes but this is the
only antheus.
AFRICAN LEOPARD Phalanta eurytis, this was a week ago and the poor
insect has crumpled wings but can fly okay. Only our second record
after the pair that hung around for a few weeks last year. Three days
later the same insect was very active near the house. So far we have
only had only two Common Leopard P phalantha this season and woodland
butterflies are not really appearing as yet.

Apart from these we have had sixty odd regular species.

In extraordinary numbers are DARK BLUE PANSY Junonia oenone and YELLOW
PANSY hierta, PAINTED LADY Vanessa cadui, DIADEM Hypolimnas missipus,
SABINE’S ALBATROSS (WHITE) Appias sabini and FALSE SWIFT (SKIPPER)
Borbo fallax. More than usual SMALL STRIPED SWORDTAIL Graphium
policenes, MOCKER SWALLOWTAIL Papilio dardanus and SMALL GRASS YELLOW
Eurema briggita,
I think that keeping locality records for Butterflies is as important
as that for birds.
The other special insect which floored me sitting on a clump of grass
in the early morning will interest Itai Shanni and Jamie Christian.
It’s the first I have ever seen perched and the last species I would
ever have expected to turn up here…. A Ringed Cascader Zygonyx
torridus a specialist of rapids!!!! (image attached).
Best for now
Brian