My last day dawned fine and sunny, and after my mandatory veg curry, I mooched off down the track. First 'newbie' was a very pale 'Blue':
This, I'm now sure is the Albocaeruean Blue
Udara albocaerulea following observations by Guy ( to whom many thanks ).The dark margins and light central patches of the forewings are just apparent through the undersides Next, a couple of Satirids. The Pallid Argus ( Callerebia scanda ). The beautifully marked pale under hindwing is very obvious in flight:
Then a single Himalayan Newar Three-ring ( Ypthima newara ):
Later on, I disturbed a butterfly which appeared to be deep shining blue black as it flew around my legs. When it settled, it was a gorgeous golden brown! It proved to be a Blue Forester ( Lethe scanda ):
From the photograph alone, one might wonder why it was called 'Blue'.
My day finished with (I think) the brown form of the Pale Blue Pansy ( Junonia orythia swinhoei ) - not much of a shot, but my only chance:
I thought that was me finished as my transport back to Guwahati was coming at 7 a.m. the next day. It tipped with rain all night and on the way down, the next day there was a massive landslip and the road was all but obliterated:
The road guys had been working through the night, but we were still held up for 50 mins. This proved to be a blessing in disguise as there was lots of lovely fresh damp sand about. The camera was quickly out as there were several Chestnut Tigers ( Parantica sita ) floating around. This has to be the most elegant and beautiful of the 'Tigers' with the chestnut suffusion on the hindwings. Unfortunately, they were very jumpy and this was the best that I could do (no open wing shot gggrrh!):
I then nearly stepped on a stunning fresh Tabby ( Pseudergolis wedah ):
And then to crown it all, a Common Windmill ( Byasa polyeuctes ) dropped down for a salt lunch:
Three that I didn't expect, put a real gloss on a very interesting holiday.
I came within a whisker of missing my flight from Delhi – but that's another story...
Tony M.
. The commonest by far was Wall Brown, with dozens being seen in many places. It reminded me of my childhood when WB was also the commonest species where I was in the MIdlands (and still am - ggrrr! Lord knows why?). I did see a couple of Ilex Hairstreaks - I think...
.
. Current thinking is that it is an unhatched Brown Hairstreak egg from last year. Any thoughts, anyone?
