yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

The Book Butterflies  On the Roof of the World ~ A Memoir ~ Peter Smetacek Aleph Book Company 2012 The Cover A snippet from the book. The interesting thing is that the leaf mimics not only have a shape and a wing pattern that resemble leaves, but they even behave appropriately. If an Oakleaf, or a Peacock Pansy ( Junonia almana ) is disturbed, it will dash into a thicket, where it will either settle on a twig in the shade or on the ground amid dead leaves. There it will keep very still until it is satisfied that the danger has passed. If the danger, in the form of a lepidopterist or a bird, follows up, it will wait until the hunter has got quite close, keeping up the deception as it sits among the leaves. While one is searching, there will be a sudden flash of orange and blue, or orange in the case of the Pansy, and the butterfly will be off at high speed before dashing into another bush. This strategy is called flash coloration. The idea is tha...

Share a piece by Yaranajit and me that finds place in February 2014 issue of Sanctuary Asia (Vol. XXXIV No. 1) A group of pale, yellowish white-winged butterflies fluttered around the rotting fruit. We moved forward slowly and then stood still to observe them. Yes, the prominent yellowish-white forewings had a black margin with two chains of white spots and two isolated white spots. The whitish-yellow hind wings had two tails with a ridged margin. A couple of years ago, we would not have been able to identify these butterflies but we had no hesitation now – Great nawabs we wrote down! The nawab butterflies, along with the rajahs, we had read up, belong to the ‘brush-footed butterflies’ family, also referred to as Charaxinae group. Nawab butterflies occur in Northeast India and further east up to Thailand. Many have gaudy colours and brilliant flashes thanks to iridescent scales covering the wings. Beauty notwithstanding, some are known to favour decaying crab-meat or rotting ...