www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Well, the weather has certainly been cold and wintery here in Lincolnshire this week, and the UK summer (if you could call it that this year), along with our butterfly season, is now a distant memory. Scraping the frost from my car windscreen has been particularly painful given that my wife Vicki and I have recently returned from a fortnight in Goa, where the temperature during the day was in the low to mid-thirties and only dropped to around 24 degrees at night.

This was our first time in Asia -the furthest east from the Greenwich Meridian that we had travelled before this was Cyprus - and we had little idea of what to expect when we flew out of Gatwick on the 9th of November on a bit of an adventure, but my fingers were crossed for some reasonable butterfly action. I knew that pretty much anything we did see would be new to us. After a long journey, we arrived at Manohar Airport around midday on Sunday 10th, got on our transfer bus, and reached our hotel late that afternoon. Little did we know, as we settled in for our first evening meal and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine before heading off to bed, that the following fortnight would bring us butterflies beyond our wildest dreams. It all started the following morning…

I had factored in two days of rest and relaxation on our arrival, so Monday and Tuesday were spent acclimatizing, recovering from jetlag, and staying local to our hotel. We had booked this holiday way back in January 2024 and my choice of hotel was based, as is often the case, on google earth searches of the surrounding area. It was a little way out from the nearest village and the local roads looked to be surrounded by some reasonable countryside, wilderness, and potential insect habitat. I had high hopes.

TAMBORIM (local)

We couldn’t have picked a better base! Early morning and late afternoon walks from our hotel produced a fabulous array of butterflies, many dragonflies and other insects, plus an excellent range of birds. The habitat was a mix of damp, waterlogged paddy fields, flower-rich roadside verges, scrub and treelines. We were also fortunate that the area between our hotel and the coast was military land belonging to the Indian Navy, and here were small patches of more mature trees and semi-natural areas from which butterflies spilled over onto the roadsides. Dragonflies were numerous and diverse, and there were many interesting birds to be seen.
Local habitat

Early morning out here appears to be the best time for Lepidoptery, and within minutes of stepping out of the hotel we encountered good numbers of butterflies including Common Crow, Glassy Tiger, Common Sailer, Crimson Rose and Grey Pansy.
Common Crow
Glassy Tiger
Common Sailer
Crimson Rose
Grey Pansy

We soon got into a routine of daily walks: some mornings we would head north from the hotel and then turn west towards the coast, other times we headed south towards Cavelossim. Every day turned up something new and our species list grew steadily over the fortnight. I was thrilled to find the Peacock Pansy on our second day, a real stunner! Blue Pansy, another beauty, showed up alongside the beach on day three, and Chocolate Pansy appeared on day four.
Peacock Pansy
Blue Pansy
Chocolate Pansy

There were plenty of smaller butterflies on the wing too, including the rather lovely Common Pierrot, which was extremely numerous.
Common Pierrot

India has a rather large range of Blues, many very similar, presenting potential ID challenges for the Lepidopterist just dipping his toes into Asian butterflies, so I hope that I have correctly allocated these. I have relied heavily on the excellent tome “A Guide to the Butterflies of Western Ghats (India) by Milind Bhakare and Hemant Ogale.
Tiny Grass Blue
Gram Blue
Dark Grass Blue

Halfway through our stay, I had a heart-stopping moment of pure joy whilst walking back from the ATM in Cavelossim, as I spotted something very different by the roadside, a species that I never dreamt I would see in the flesh - the stunningly beautiful Common Silverline!
Common Silverline

Amongst the Pierids were species such as Common Emigrant, Mottled Emigrant, Common Gull, and the Duracell-powered relentlessly flying Psyche, very reminiscent of our own Wood White in flight and behaviour.
Mottled Emigrant (male)
Common Emigrant
Mottled Emigrant (female)
Common Gull
Psyche

The Skippers are still causing me headaches, so many similar darts to differentiate, but here are two easy ones:
Indian Skipper
Common Awl

Two Browns made themselves known to us most days, namely the Common Bush Brown and Common Evening Brown.
Common Bush Brown
Common Evening Brown

And here are a few more locals:
Slate Flash
Plain Tiger
Common Castor
Baron

Part Two to follow, in which we leave behind the tranquil sanctuary of our hotel and take a crazy two-hour road trip inland, where paradise awaits…

Part Two

MYSTIC WOODS (Priol)

For our first trip from our hotel, we were picked up by our taxi driver at 07:30am and driven northeast towards Priol. To say that travelling by road in Goa is an eye-opener is a bit of an understatement – seen through the eyes of a Western European driver it is complete, intense, utter, terrifying, shambolic chaos! Our drive took us through the busy city of Margao. The roads are teeming with scooters, cars, buses, trucks, tuk tuks, cyclists, pedestrians, and numerous wandering cows and dogs. Nominally they drive on the left in India, but in reality any piece of road is fair game. Scooters overtake on the inside, on the outside, cross the road right in front of you. Everyone drives on the horn, and brakes are used as an absolute last resort! There should be carnage everywhere, but in fact there are very few accidents and collisions. It is as if some sort of “hive mind” mentality is at work and everyone just synchronises and swerves round everyone else at speed as if it is completely normal, which I guess it is out there. One could be forgiven for thinking that the Indians are terrible drivers; on the contrary, they are excellent drivers. Otherwise, they would all be dead!

Our destination this morning was Mystic Woods, the passionate project of Yashodan and Jyoti Heblekar, who have made a natural haven for butterflies and other wildlife on their land over almost two decades by careful planting and management, including creating a fascinating rooftop garden which acts as a rain collection and filtration system. Despite being referred to as the Butterfly Conservatory of Goa, all the butterflies here are free flying and naturally occurring, many drifting in from the surrounding jungle to nectar and breed.
Yashodan gave us a fascinating tour, and we spent around two and a half hours here photographing some beautiful beasts. Below are some highlights from our visit.

I was particularly delighted to see the Red Pierrot, one that had jumped off the pages of my Western Ghats reference book prior to our travels and embedded itself in my consciousness. We only saw the one, but it was immaculately fresh and posed beautifully. Apparently, it is commoner in March. The Tamil Lacewing and the Malabar Banded Peacock are also “must-see” species in this part of the world. Although the Peacock was rather shy and spent all its time up in the tree-tops, it was a stunning butterfly to behold, even from a distance. And the Common Jezebel is out of this world! Such a vividly coloured beauty - it is as if someone has turned the colour saturation settings up to the max - unbelievable!
Mystic Woods approach
Yashodan, me and Vicki at Mystic Woods
Tamil Lacewing
Tailed Jay
Suffused Snow Flat
Red Pierrot
Common Jezebel
Common Mormon
Malabar Banded Peacock

Part Three to follow shortly

Excellent report as usual Pete. Looking forward to part 3

I visited Goa in 2015 but for purely birding before I took an interest in butterflies.

I’ve subsequently visited Sri Lanka on a cruise and the butterflies I saw there are very much what you have seen so far apart from the gorgeous Silverline and Lacewing .

Thanks Steve - Sri Lanka was also an option for this trip but Goa won out for logistical reasons!

Part Three

NETRAVALI

For our next day trip into the jungle proper I had engaged the services of local guide and Indian butterfly expert Parag Rangnekar, who has vast experience of the butterflies of the area. Parag picked us up at 06:30 on the morning of the 14th of November and drove us south-east to the edge of the Netravali Wildlife Reserve. The weather was overcast on arrival at our first location, but it brightened, and we soon started to see a few butterflies of interest.
Habitat
Medus Brown
Common Hedge Blue
Common Fourring
Common Cerulean
Chestnut Bob
Brown Awl

It wasn’t long before Parag spotted our first Southern Birdwing high up at nectar. I only managed a heavily cropped record shot, but the experience of seeing my first ever birdwing in the wild remains a treasured moment indeed! A huge, stunning insect.
Southern Birdwing high up

A little later, Parag led us to a small clearing where he hoped to find the Malabar Tree Nymph, the State Butterfly of Goa. Sure enough, one eventually appeared and performed its unique and delicate dancing flight around the trees. Again, I could only manage a long zoom heavily cropped record shot of this sensational butterfly. Vicki got some nice video footage showing it in flight. The Clipper also appeared in this clearing, and again I didn’t get close enough for any quality shots – some of these species are quite challenging. Suddenly Parag became very animated as a butterfly dropped down out of the canopy. “Quick! At your feet! Take it, take it, take it!!” A Gaudy Baron had landed right in front of me, an uncommon grounding event. Unfortunately, my camera was set with flash armed from my previous photo and as I fired, the flash spooked the butterfly and it took to the wing, never to be seen again. I captured a blurred but identifiable image, and it will go down as the one that got away this time! I was not on form photographically speaking this morning, but things were set to improve as the day wore on.
Malabar Tree Nymph high up
Clipper high up
Gaudy Baron taking flight

Around 11:00am we walked back to the car. Parag spotted yet another tree-level butterfly of interest - the Common Imperial.
Common Imperial

It was time to leave this site and head on to a second locality, but as we drove off Parag slammed on the brakes; he had spotted a Black Rajah down on the road in front of us. I crept up slowly and captured a decent image of this cracker – what a lovely underside!
Black Rajah

The second site that we visited was by a waterfall.
Habitat
Me and Parag heading off piste

This was a great place to stop off for a while in the relative cool from the waterfall, where we found the large and spectacular Cruiser, the Great Eggfly, the Black Prince, some mud-puddling Angled Pierrots, and I captured one of my all-time favourite underside shots in the form of a mint-fresh example of the Common Nawab.
Cruiser
Great Eggfly - male, female, underside
Black Prince
Angled Pierrot
Common Nawab

What a sensational day! We learned much from Parag, not just about butterflies but about many other aspects of life in Goa, and returned home buzzing from a great day out.

Part Four to follow.

Just the tonic for a miserable late-November day, Pete.

Keep 'em coming!

Part Four

TAMBDI SURLA

The destination for our third and final day trip was the forest surrounding the Tambdi Surla temple, a part of the Bhagwan Mahaveer National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary. We had decided to do this trip on our own without a guide, so hired a taxi and driver for the day to get us there and back. We were picked up at 06:00 on Monday 18th November and embarked on a near two-hour drive to our destination. Our driver today was very talkative and gave us a running commentary along the way, pointing out various temples, houses, factories and so forth and giving us a potted history of Goa, colonial rule, the Portuguese era, the British era, the local employment situation and conditions, and many other points of interest on Goan politics and life. It was fascinating, and I was enjoying not driving for once and being able to relax and enjoy all the sights. We had rapidly adjusted to the road conditions out here, and the initial terror had been replaced with exhilaration and enjoyment.

We arrived at the temple just before 08:00am, and unlike most visitors, instead of heading for the temple itself, we set off on a long trek through the jungle in search of more Lepidopterous gold dust.

In the weeks and months before travelling out to Goa I had been getting increasingly excited about our upcoming adventures, but conversely Vicki had been getting more and more anxious about things. Her main fears were snakes, and concerns about getting food poisoning. Mainly snakes though. More specifically, me getting bitten by a snake (I am not known for restraint when it comes to pursuing butterflies through the undergrowth once I have a prize in my sights), and her having to deal with the situation, should it occur. I guess also there was some personal fear in her mind about dying herself out in Goa. “You know, the majority of people who travel to Goa actually survive and come home alive” I said one evening, in an attempt at reassuring her. My words didn’t quite have the desired effect. In hindsight, perhaps I should have omitted the word “majority” …

Given this, I must admire her bravery in following me fearlessly through the wilderness of the jungle with no back-up. We had a great time here, following the river upstream towards a waterfall and finding plenty of interesting butterflies. On the way back, we bumped into Simon and Anne Spencer and Parag, who were leading the Greenwings Goan butterfly tour out there and just happened to be visiting Tambdi Surla on the same day as us. Of course we stopped for a chat, before heading off to search for an Indian Moon Moth that they had found resting on a trunk just down the road. There was some good mud-puddling going on near a stream here also and we liked the whole area so much that we came back for another day later in the week. The following are a few highlights from our two visits:
Habitat at Tambdi Surla
In the shadier parts of the forest we found Tamil Yeoman, Tamil Spotted Flat, Colour Sergeant, Common Lascar, Rustic, Double-banded Judy and the iridescent Red Spot Duke.
Tamil Yeoman
Tamil Spotted Flat
Colour Sergeant
Common Lascar
Rustic
Double-banded Judy
Red Spot Duke

A Centaur Oakblue came down to ground in the dappled sunlight alongside the river and gave us a rare upper-wing display.
Centaur Oakblue

Back closer to the road was a damp sunny clearing where mud-puddlers were gathering, and here we found Tawny Coster, the bizarrely patterned Common Map, plus good numbers of Southern Bluebottles and Common Jays, and most stunning of all, the enormous Blue Mormon. Superb!
Tawny Coster
Common Map
Southern Bluebottles (front) and Common Jays
Blue Mormon

And that concludes my report folks. I can't help but compare Goa to Costa Rica, my all-time favourite butterfly destination so far, and while Goa has a mere fraction of the number of species (around 250 compared to over 1200), it certainly punches above its weight in terms of quality! I haven't quite come down to earth yet since returning home. This was an incredible experience and I very much hope to return to Goa again at some point. My advice to anyone contemplating a butterflying trip out there? Don't hesitate - it is fabulous!

I really enjoyed reading your Goan travel report, Pete - superb, and what wonderful butterflies you saw - congratulations!!!

David M wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2024 2:28 pm Just the tonic for a miserable late-November day, Pete.

Keep 'em coming!

Thanks David - we need all the help we can get to make it through the British winter...

David Lazarus wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2024 3:00 pm I really enjoyed reading your Goan travel report, Pete - superb, and what wonderful butterflies you saw - congratulations!!!

Thanks David - glad you enjoyed it!

Great pictures, Pete. I've spent time further south in the Western Ghats and seen a very similar range of butterflies. I spent a lot of time looking at the blues and so far as I'm concerned, you've identified them correctly! My first gram blue was a female, very like yours, in a very similar context. I wondered how on earth I would cope with so many species, but when you get your eye in, and know what to look for, it becomes much easier.

Is the book you recommend comprehensive? I've got half a dozen books on Indian butterflies, plus d'Abrera, but would lap up another if it covered a region comprehensively. I also have a pdf of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, offered free to all by the very generous author, which covers 322 out of the 336 species. It can be downloaded here: https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... 8_-3_Final.

Guy

Loved the read, Pete. I guess it's natural to be on the alert for such dangers as snakes when in such a location, but these wondrous butterflies are well worth those risks. Thanks for sharing. That's given me a real lift!

Padfield wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2024 9:01 pm
Is the book you recommend comprehensive? I've got half a dozen books on Indian butterflies, plus d'Abrera, but would lap up another if it covered a region comprehensively.
Guy

Hi Guy,

The book covers more than 290 species and contains many photographs of each species covered, including some, but not all, seasonal forms. Exceptionally, it also has photographs of eggs, larvae, and pupae for almost all of the species. It is a weighty tome coming in at almost 500 pages. It has a useful identification key at the back. My only criticisms would be that the species accounts lack information on flight periods, and info on distribution is limited to a tick box table for each species, showing which of the 6 states of the Western Ghats a given butterfly occurs in.

Overall I find it an excellent work, and I am sure it would be worthy of a place in your extensive library! The main problem is getting hold of a copy -it is out of stock on NHBS website, and I struggled to lay my hands on a copy. Pemberley Books finally managed to get me one earlier this year in good time for my trip.

All the best!
Pete

David M wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2024 10:28 pm Loved the read, Pete. I guess it's natural to be on the alert for such dangers as snakes when in such a location, but these wondrous butterflies are well worth those risks. Thanks for sharing. That's given me a real lift!

As always, happy to be of service David!

Padfield wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2024 9:01 pm Great pictures, Pete. I've spent time further south in the Western Ghats and seen a very similar range of butterflies. I spent a lot of time looking at the blues and so far as I'm concerned, you've identified them correctly! My first gram blue was a female, very like yours, in a very similar context. I wondered how on earth I would cope with so many species, but when you get your eye in, and know what to look for, it becomes much easier.

Is the book you recommend comprehensive? I've got half a dozen books on Indian butterflies, plus d'Abrera, but would lap up another if it covered a region comprehensively. I also have a pdf of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, offered free to all by the very generous author, which covers 322 out of the 336 species. It can be downloaded here: https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... 8_-3_Final.

Guy

Brilliant link Guy. Do you happen to know of any guides that cover Ghana. I am off there in February

Well, well, well. Most impressive.

I have seen a few of those species - Singapore, Maldives, but never knew what they were called.

My "Striped Ringlet" is officially the "Common Bush Brown".

Thanks Pete.

Jack

Jack Harrison wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2024 6:41 pm Well, well, well. Most impressive.

I have seen a few of those species - Singapore, Maldives, but never knew what they were called.

Jack

Thanks Jack -this trip has certainly given me inspiration to travel even further east in the future in pursuit of more exotic species!

That sounds like a fantastic trip Pete. The butterflies there look so interesting and it must have been fantastic to find guides who were knowledgeable about butterflies to show you around.
Now I have another place to add to my bucket list!! I wonder what my wife would say to that!!!

NickMorgan wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 10:05 pm That sounds like a fantastic trip Pete.
Now I have another place to add to my bucket list!! I wonder what my wife would say to that!!!

Nick, it was amazing - definitely one for your bucket list! Our species list for the fortnight totalled 83, about a third of the total Goan list, and 79 of them were lifers. And that was by spending most of our time in the area local to our hotel, with just 3 day trips out into the jungle. If it would help, you could try and persuade your wife that the weather in Goa in November would be much more to her liking

Great set of photos, you saw some excellent stuff there.

Thanks Paul - it was highly memorable! Great to get my first life experiences of the dramatic Troides and Graphium species, as you will understand, having photographed some yourself! But the small stuff always blows me away as well - such incredible beauty...

Andy02 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2024 11:59 am

Padfield wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2024 9:01 pm Great pictures, Pete. I've spent time further south in the Western Ghats and seen a very similar range of butterflies. I spent a lot of time looking at the blues and so far as I'm concerned, you've identified them correctly! My first gram blue was a female, very like yours, in a very similar context. I wondered how on earth I would cope with so many species, but when you get your eye in, and know what to look for, it becomes much easier.

Is the book you recommend comprehensive? I've got half a dozen books on Indian butterflies, plus d'Abrera, but would lap up another if it covered a region comprehensively. I also have a pdf of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, offered free to all by the very generous author, which covers 322 out of the 336 species. It can be downloaded here: https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... 8_-3_Final.

Guy

Brilliant link Guy. Do you happen to know of any guides that cover Ghana. I am off there in February

Hi Andy. I used to subscribe to an Afrotropical butterfly page where you could download Word documents covering whole tribes. That has since become non-functional (though I have several of the documents) but there is another site with information on all Afrotropical taxa here: https://metamorphosis.org.za/?p=articles&s=List&pt=166. If you expand the menu tree, you will see that each downloadable pdf covers one genus, so it's not the sort of thing you can just browse to look for your butterfly. Nevertheless, if you use a less comprehensive source to narrow down your butterflies (there are plenty of books on African butterflies in general, including some quite cheap ones) you can use this site to pin down the species. For Ghana in particular, Torben Larsen's two-volume Butterflies of West Africa is the classic work, if out of date now. You can still get quite cheap second-hand copies.

Guy