Rathinda amor

 

The Monkey Puzzle, Rathinda amor (Fabricius) 1775 is a small lycaenid or blue butterfly found in south Asia.

Distribution

Western Ghats, South Indian plains (as far North as Bangalore), Orissa and Ganjam districts to Calcutta. Assam. Sri Lanka.

Status

Not Rare in India. It is common and present in all the Western Ghat districts of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Goa. It is common but not found in all the Ghat districts of Maharashtra and does not occur in Gujarat at all (Gaonkar)

Description

Sexes alike. Wingspan – 26 to 28 mm. Upperside – The butterfly is dark brown. It has a white-spot end cell. It has narrow white spots on 2 and 3 which form a short band on the forewing. On the UPH it has two black tornal spots and narrow dark reddish spota above them. Underside – The butterfly is white to dark yellowish brown. Forewing has irregular dark basal markings with a curved white discal line. The apical two-fifths are a rich dark brown colour. The hindwing has a silvery margin with many irregular black lines and spots within. It has three tails, being 2 mm, 6 mm and 2.5 mm in length.

Habits

This butterfly is found in jungle areas of moderate to heavy rainfall – both, in heavy forest and scrub. The butterfly occurs below 900 meters or so. It keeps to undergrowth and can be seen along forest paths and in clearings.

The butterfly has a weak flight, it stays low and does not fly for long without alighting. Its method of alighting is interesting – as soon as it lands, it turns around and waggles its tail filaments, it also sidesteps for a while – all this is apparently to confuse a predator as to which side is the head. This is a likely reason that the first naturalists may have named the species the Monkey Puzzle

Food Plants

The butterfly has a number of foodplants from families Rubiaceae, Dipterocarpeae, Euphorbiaceae, Loranthaceae, Sapindaceae and Myrtaceae. Mangifera indica, Meiogyne pannosa

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Papilionoidea
Family:	Lycaenidae
Subfamily:	Theclinae
Genus:	Rathinda
Species:	R. amor

Brother Blue and Peggy Melanson at findingcourage.com

Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill also known as Brother Blue, passed away on Nov. 3, 2009 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His wonderful storytelling throughout Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts will be greatly missed, especially his versions of Shakespeare and King Lear.

Brother Blue doing a piece of King Lear

Brother Blue frequently dressed in all blue and drew pictures of butterflies on his hands and face. His brother’s love of butterflies lead Mr. Hill to use it as an important symbol in his storytelling which often included themes of personal transformation. He wore a blue cap with butterfly and peace motifs pinned on it. He brought joy, happiness and whimsy wherever he went. Just seeing him walk through Harvard Square in his colorful dress made you smile. He was a modern day troubadour and shaman.

As the New York Times obituary stated,

Mr. Hill regarded storytelling as a sacred duty and a path to universal harmony.

“When you tell a story, you tell it to all creation,” he once said. “It’s cosmic. It never goes away.”

Children and adults who heard Brother Blue’s parables and stories will remember his inspirational and thought provoking tales. His wife of 59 years, Ruth Edmonds, who is curator at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, frequently accompanied him during his storytelling performances.

Brother Blue and his wife Ruth Edmonds: www.artofstorytellingshow.com

Brother Blue, thank you for all the years of storytelling you brought to the world. You also motivated many young people to take up the craft of storytelling to the next generation.

For more information about Brother Blue, see www.brotherblue.com.

Cambridge Community Television created a tribute to Brother Blue.

The whole world was singing that day in the park, but nobody was listening. No human being, at least. They were all magnificently trained to listen to each other, in their multitude of parallel languages and media outputs, but they had lost the ability to hear even the blaring clamor of a scorching sunset or the relentless whisper of the wind. Human language had come to define their existence. If it could not be expressed in words, then it must not be real. In most cases, it would pass right under the radar of consideration altogether.

But the sound of a tree falling in the woods still resounds, even if no man is there to hear it. So nature continued its elegant discourse, as was its purpose, patiently awaiting the kindred response of man.

I was humming a tranquil melody that mild autumn afternoon when Sophia nonchalantly settled on the park bench next to me. She opened her American History book and immediately gave all her attention to the words on the page. Unaware of my gaze, she made frustrated faces at the black and white print.

Sophia was an intelligent young woman. She worked hard and played fair. But life didn’t seem to respond in kind to her earnest intentions. School was always a struggle for her, with grades that did not reflect the effort she exerted. Solace came in the form of art classes, where she did not feel the same pressure of having her intelligence measured and judged. Instead, she was free to simply let her hands be moved to create her own truth, one that could not truly be measured or judged. She relished these moments and was grateful for the creative outlet.

What Sophia did not appreciate or even realize, however, was that her hands were not moving of their own will, nor was she herself willing them to move in any particular direction. Instead, her hands were listening to the world and speaking its truth in the curves and shades of her sketches. The world was crying out to her through her very own limbs. But she didn’t even know that she was supposed to be listening.

Of all the subjects she studied in school, mathematics was the strangest. It seemed, to her, purely rational and yet so magical at the same time. The laws and formulas and equations all made so much sense. But why? Why should there be any such laws at all? And how did these laws simply exist, without any intervention of man, other than to uncover them for their own personal use? She shook the feeling and continued on reading the next paragraph in her history book. There was no reason to be thinking about math at the moment anyhow.

Sophia had taken an American History class in high school, and also studied the subject in elementary school at one point. But now, in her freshman year of college, she was learning it all over again. The same history, recounted in different words. How many different ways could you say the same thing? Was there a mathematical formula for that?

An unsettling ripple of energy surged through her, and she felt compelled to begin doodling in the margins of her textbook. It started out as an oblong geometric shape, then thin wisps of texture began to form on either side, and in a moment she could name the sketch as the image of a butterfly. It was in that moment, as the neurons in her brain relayed to her consciousness that her hand had just created a butterfly, that I swooped down from the branch of my oak tree and skimmed by her just closely enough to gently brush the perimeter of my left uppermost wing against the blushing flesh of her right cheekbone. She never even caught a glimpse of me before I fluttered off along another whisper of air. But she had felt me. She knew I was there. She believed in my existence.

In the days that followed, Sophia would try to describe her experience in many different ways, with different words and shapes and colors and sounds. And although she would never quite succeed in replicating that moment, she somehow knew that this was not her true aim. There was something more important than trying to define our interaction that day. It was the fact that she knew, and I knew, that the next time I spoke to Sophia, she would listen.

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it… or so said the legendary Frank Zappa…and I think he said it after one of his trips to Budapest. Whether it be the light features made from empty wine bottles in Köleves, the seats made from old bathtubs in Szimpla kert, or the complete interior remake from someone else’s trash in Csendes, the Hungarian ability to make something from nothing is artistic simplicity at its best.

I had the (mis)fortune to be in Alaska when the Celtic Tiger took up residence in Ireland. Happily ensconced in my log cabin, hundreds of miles from the nearest city, I was quite oblivious to its antics. Ireland had practically full employment; GDP was growing in double digits on a yearly basis; and for the first time in living memory, emigrants were returning in their droves. And I missed it all. While I was living off Copper River reds, frying up moose-burgers and chewing my way through last-season’s caribou jerky, Ireland was wining and dining in Michelin-starred restaurants, gorging herself on oysters and caviar, and becoming all too familiar with Dom Perignon and Ms Bollinger. And I was happy for her. Her day had come.

Pubs with soul

Before the Celtic Tiger was born, you could find pubs in Dublin where floors were covered in sawdust and used as ashtrays; where granny’s hand-crocheted anti-macassars decorated flea-ridden sofas whose patterns had long since faded into oblivion; where grandfather clocks signaled closing time. Pubs where musicians on their fiddles and tin whistles and bodhráns lulled us merry punters into a happy melancholy, providing a soundtrack for the heady Guinness-fuelled opinionating on everything from the state of world politics to the odds of Dublin winning yet another All-Ireland final. Pubs where elderly couples sat in companionable silence, having said all there was to say and the boys in the back played the odd hand or two of cards for a few quid to carry them over till payday. Back in the day, before the Celtic Tiger, pubs in Ireland’s capital had soul.

Everything measured, everything matched

But as the Celtic Tiger grew into an all consuming monster, the slow death of tradition began. I know we welcomed it with open arms…and who could blame us? After so many years of playing second fiddle to other EU states, it was time we had our turn on the world’s stage, and we relished it. But at what cost? Old pub interiors were gutted and replaced with shiny new wood and brass fittings. Quirkiness was replaced with more of the same. Designer candles took centre table. Cocktail menus offered screaming orgasms, sex on the beach and long slow comfortable screws up against the wall. Everything was measured; everything matched. Yes, the price of a pint had gone through the roof but sadder still, that witty deconstruction of the week’s events had been replaced by a dreary discourse on the price of property. With the smoking ban in place, smirting (smoking and flirting) outside in the freezing cold was nonetheless much better craic than staying indoors to be browbeaten by loud piped music and tales of killings made on the stock exchange.

A Magyar tigris

I moved to Budapest for many reasons and for no particular reason at all. Perhaps I was hoping to get in on the földszint of what I was sure was going to become another European success story. To see first-hand what happens when EU money swells the coffers of a relatively impoverished nation; when foreign investment wipes out unemployment; when talented emigrants return to the fold bringing with them a new perspective; when non-nationals flood to the country, armed with exotic languages and spicy foods. But now, two years later, there’s ne’er a sniff of a Magyar tigris. The only black and orange creature I’ve seen here is a butterfly. And when I sit in one of the many ruin pubs in Budapest, I give silent thanks.

I dare not say aloud what I am thinking. Selfishly, I want the bars in Budapest to stay as they are. The collection of random furniture; the smoke-filled rooms alive with animated, intelligent conversation where music accompanies thought rather than drowns it out; long tables scattered with half-smoked boxes of cigarettes and novels in many languages; people moving effortlessly from Hungarian to English to German so that everyone is included in the conversation, the toe-tapping beat of gypsy jazz. Nothing matching; nothing measured; everything unique.

And then I look across the road and see the shiny modern interior of a new pub through huge, brightly lit windows…and the smudge on the glass looks remarkably like a paw print.

This article was first published in the Budapest Times 12 October 2009

Something splendid in this night
butterfly nostalgia and pretending
we aren’t still teenagers

I haven’t worked these fingers
in too long, not like this
not wrenching them inside my chest

How is it that my words
continue to come out of your mouth?
I haven’t heard sweet in savoury

in too long

It was approaching mid-day as the butterflies began to make their voyage. The sun began to beat down. Harder, and harder, hotter, and hotter. I went to kneel in the grass, and closed my eyes. I could feel the butterflies floating on with a greater surge. Our foursome was called, and at once a sense of calm came over the flapping wings. A calm from confidence. Nothing gave me strength more than having those three fellow teammates by my side, ready to receive the baton and help lead us onward. Waves of heat left the rubber, distorting our view. The gentle sound of our spikes tapped on the soft rubber. A sound much to our liking. One that was familiar to us, and one that brought success. Eventually, the time to lead our team to victory was upon me. Creeping into the blocks, sweat dripping off my nose and singeing on the ground, all I could think about was doing my job. There was a reason we were number one all year, and it was our time to prove it. BANG, the first muscle fired, as the last butterfly left. Quickly, the nervous flock of butterflies turned to a fearsome pack of wolves, on the hunt. My teammates and I had never felt so alive, even as time seemed to slow. Coming down the straight my blood felt full of energy, despite the fatigue from earlier. In less than a minute and a half, it was over. Hugs and cheers ensued, and a school first had been achieved. From the days of effort, the long hours of training, on weekends, and even holidays, I was able to pull from deep inside me the heart from all the grueling times, to win. This moment was full of great contributions, talents, and qualities that made success so easy to come by. That was my secret. I realized however, that it was not my doing alone, we as a team did something great. It was knowing that I trained harder than anyone that made this so special. Two years straight I had fought over every hill, work out, and weight, tooth and nail to get to this podium. That time led to great talents. Those talents led to great contributions to a team that worked harder than any in the state. The qualities I achieved through the years of training were not just physical. Mentally, I overcame more than what was previously imaginable. In a bound, the limits set before were crushed. With my team, I became a leader. Young, but strong. I took on responsibilities I would have never thought of, even beyond the track. Through my experience I left with a quality, of a greater sense of inner strength, to take care of myself, and lead others. Lead others not to mediocrity, but to something great. It makes me proud to know that I entered this assent as someone I thought was good, only to come out, as someone other people think is great.

Climate change is already affecting wildlife in Britain, with traditional species under threat while those associated with warmer habitats, such as wasp spiders and spoonbill birds, thrive.

Conservationists have warned hazel dormice and bluebells could be under pressure because of warmer weather which will affect hibernating animals and bring trees into leaf earlier.

The Wildlife Trusts said action was needed to help plants and animals cope with rising temperatures as well as protect humans from the heightened risk from flooding and heatwaves.

Brian Eversham, an expert on climate change for the charity, said warmer temperatures could mean birds, animals and plants such as the spoonbill, wasp spider and loose-flowered orchid could become more abundant or colonise for the first time.

However, species such as the mountain hare may struggle as uplands shrink, he warned in the charity’s newsletter Natural World.

He said: “Some favourite species may decline or disappear: the Bluebell may be genetically unable to flower much earlier, and forest trees open their leaves much earlier, bluebells may disappear from the deep shade and survive only on the edges.

“Animals which hibernate, such as the native Dormouse and some butterflies and moths, may struggle to survive warmer and wetter winters.

“In future, wet woodlands may be the last home to shade-loving and moisture-demanding plants such as ferns in southern Britain.”

Tom Tew, chief scientist at the Government’s conservation body, Natural England, said wildlife was already feeling the effects of climate change.

Studies show oak trees are coming into leaf three weeks earlier than in the 1950s – causing insects to shift their emergence patterns and thus depriving birds of food to feed their chicks.

Newts are coming back into ponds in November, instead of March as they were in the 1970s, and swallows in Cornwall ”aren’t even bothering to migrate” south in winter, he said.

European birds and insects which can easily move could be the first to increase their range into this country, while those native species least able to move their ranges further north or higher into the uplands as temperatures rise are most at risk of declines or extinctions.

Dr Tew said the creation of salt marshes on the coast was a more cost-effective flood protection than concrete walls and provided habitat for wildlife.

He also called on planners to make the landscape more ”permeable”, allowing wildlife to move by providing more ‘’stepping stones” such as ponds and hedgerows.

Mr Eversham added: “About 80 per cent of UK species are southern and only about 20 per cent northern so if the landscape allows them to move the majority may do well. ‘And many which currently live in France or southern Europe may colonise for the first time.”

Wasp spiders live on the south coast of Britain but have been recorded as far north as Cambridge; they are mostly found around the Mediterranean Sea.

Source: Telegraph, Alastair Jamieson, 23 Nov 2009

If you haven’t yet visited Ted Staunton’s Gallery of Record Labels from the first half of the twentieth century, you have been MAJORLY missing out.

Here are some reasons why:

I can’t freakin’ get enough of them. And there are a bajillion more where these came from. Check out the beautifully extensive gallery HERE.

The Butterfly is an option position that is composed of 2 vertical spreads that have a common strike price. In other words, butterfly trading involves an opening position where options (either calls or puts) are bought (or sold) at 3 different strike prices. The way in which these options are created makes the butterfly a position that has both limited losses and limited profits, and is considered a neutral market trading strategy.

The Long Butterfly can be created using either all call options or all put options. Due to put-call parity, a long butterfly created using call options will behave like a long butterfly created using put options. In other words, it doesn’t really matter whether you use calls or puts to create your long butterfly. Our example here will focus on the version using call options.

Buying an In-the-Money (ITM) call option, selling 2 At-the-Money (ATM) call options and buying another Out-of-the-Money (OTM) call option can create the long butterfly. This is actually a combination of 2 opposing vertical spread options, hence why the butterfly is also known as the butterfly spread.

Combining the profit profile of these 4 call options, you will find that if the stock price falls, you will face limited losses (which is the initial premium you paid for the entire butterfly trade). Similarly, if the stock price climbs too high, you will also face limited losses. However, if the stock price stays around the vicinity of the ATM option strike price, you will receive limited profit.

This makes the long butterfly a good neutral option strategy for low volatility, since you are betting on the stock price not moving much in order to collect maximum profits. It is also a low-risk strategy, since your losses are limited if the stock crashes or climbs unexpectedly. Unfortunately, this is accompanied by limited profits as well. As has been mentioned above, the long butterfly can also be created using all put options instead of all call options.

A Short Butterfly is the exact opposite of the long butterfly. Instead of buying an ITM call, selling 2 ATM calls and buying an OTM call, a short butterfly is constructed by selling an ITM call, buying 2 ATM calls and selling an OTM call. As before, the short butterfly can be created using all put options instead of all call options.

The short butterfly’s profit profile is the opposite of the long butterfly’s. If the stock price falls, you will receive your maximum limited profits (which is the initial credit premium you received when opening the short butterfly position). Similarly, when the stock price climbs, you will also receive limited profit. However, if the stock price doesn’t change much, you will face a loss, though that loss is limited as well.

As you can see from the above description, the short butterfly is meant to be a strategy that is high in volatility but neutral in direction (i.e. you expect the stock to move a lot, but do not know in which direction). As a side note, this might not be the best strategy for you if you are indeed expecting high volatility and are uncertain in stock price direction. Both the Straddle and the Strangle strategies also have the same lean towards high volatility and neutral direction, but with the extra benefit that they have the potential for unlimited profit. However, the benefit of the short butterfly is that it is a credit position where you pocket the initial premium when creating it.

One warning about both long and short butterfly trading: these positions involve buying and selling options at 3 strike prices. For most option brokers, this means you will be paying 3 commissions to open the position, and another 3 commissions to close it. You will need to consider these extra commissions (which differ from broker to broker) when trying to determine if the butterfly will be profitable for your circumstances. OptionsHouse lets you place spread trades that are up to 4 legs for only $14.95 for any number of contracts. If you choose to do this type of trading, we highly recommend opening an account with OptionsHouse.

To learn more about option trading strategies, visit http://www.clarkfinancial.com/option_trading_strategies.html

Our Butterfly Bush has attracted some lovely visitors. I do think that these creatures should be named flutterbys as that is what they do … flutter by.   click

Black & Yellow Butterfly

Check out this youtube slideshow of some beautiful bugs (butterflies and stuff)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQZAiuDoTg

…No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage.
When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too-
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out-
And take upon ’s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies; and we’ll wear out,
In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th’ moon…

Wow! What an awsome venue and gathering that was!

Here a few selections from Naaman’s part of the night:

SKY SONGS:

(These instructions will be issued in zine form sometime early in 2010.)

Sky Rising

 Tired of feeling like we need more ladders in life? Are you? Climb a ladder to be sure.

Sky to Drink (but not feel drunk)

 Water-violence: the myth that we are not the same, you and I. Today, think good thoughts about the rain.

Sky to Solve a Problem with

 When the sky clears, remember to breathe in again. If the clouds seem too heavy, it’s your brain needs exercise.

Sky to Think of Mother  

 Place two parallel lines on the floor. Stand in between them. Look up.

Sky to Deliver the Mail

 Count the number of letter carriers you see in a week. Collect that number of sky-pieces and send them to your friends.

So, I have recently found something out about my dating style if you will.   This may not make sense for a bit, but just stick with me.

I once heard that when someone uses drugs for the first time, the high is so paramount that they are forever chasing that continual high through consistent drug use.   Beyond the additive nature of drugs, this chasing the dragon has the individual perpetually looking for that level of the first high.

Here is how I relate this to dating.  When you have that first date that is filled with chemistry and sparks, then there is no way to pretend that chemistry just isn’t a factor.   There are some people out there who have never had that moment of chemistry or as I call it, Za Za Zsu.   For those people, a fairly average date with nothing really “wrong” would continue to date that person until a real deal breaker came into fruition.  For me, not having that inital moment of a spark or chemistry is enough of a deal breaker for me.  I am on the hunt for the love of my life, not just someone to fill the time.

And for those lovely readers in the blogging world who are curious in how my blind date went, listen to the entire recap of the date on our podcast show: Penny & Ben.  Check out Episode #18 for the full blind date story.

In past posts i’ve mentioned that my driving test was imminent. Well today was the day. My test was book for 1:45pm

I had booked the day off, so I didn’t have anything else to worry about.

I spent most of the morning not thinking about my test. I figured that, that was my best bet, considering how badly I suffer from nerves. Luckily (not really) I had to go to the doctors to hand in a wee sample (don’t ask). So that kept my thoughts occupied for most of the morning. When I got to the doctors I handed in my sample, turned round to walk out and there was my grandad waving at me from the waiting room. He was there with my nan, who was in with the nurse. When I told him why I was there his immediately asked (very loudly in a busy waiting room) ‘are you pregnant??’ To which I embarrassedly replied ‘NO Grandad, and shushh!!

While we waited for my nan to come out, I showed him pictures of my cousin’s, his great grand-daughter, 1st birthday party. It was a lovely party. Its been so long since I went to a proper birthday party, with cake, jelly and ice cream and party games. I also got the chance to see my cousin’s (the baby’s mum) new flat.

Anyway, when my nan came out and we left I explained why I was there. With my grandad piping up behind me ‘She’s pregnant’!!, while laughing his head off! I and my nan were not amused!!

On the way home, I bought my lunch, all the while not think about my test!

At 12:15 my instructor picked me up from my house. The nerves had set in full force at this point, with little butterflies doing the quick-step in my belly! We had a little drive around and finally stopped just around the corner of the test centre. Actually sitting in the car, and perhaps comforted by the ease of my driving had steeled my nerves. We talked more about what to expect and going over the questions the examiner could potentially ask.

At about 1:30pm we drove into the centre and went into the waiting room. I was still feeling alright about it. There was a girl sitting next to me who was white as a sheet.

The moment came when the examiner came in the room (his name was Paul) and called my name. Literally as we walked out the front door, my legs suddenly turned to jelly. I tripped over the door step and wobbled my way to the car.

I could (but I won’t) describe the whole test in minute detail. I could describe what I did but not what I was thinking. I went into a kind of zone, where my mind was completely calm and I knew exactly what I had to do. Although my body didn’t co-operate for some of the test. There was one point when we were on the same route as another test and had to wait while a girl finished her ‘reverse around the corner’. She hit the curb 3 times and I was sitting there thinking it must obviously be a really hard corner. When it was my turn to do it, my left leg was shaking so much that I stalled the car.

But despite my shaking legs, we pulled into the test centre when the test finished and the examiner announced that I had PASSED!!!!

The elation that I felt was amazing. I couldn’t even drive home because I was buzzing so much!! I also think I chatted my head off the whole way home!! My parents and grand parents where waiting for me when I got home, and I was very proud to announce I had passed. First time, with only 3 minors!!

So thats my big news of the day, more like month actually!!

Butterflies have always been a part of my life.  Quite a variety made their way through rural southern Virginia.  My brothers and I found a little green pod once.  We watched it grow transparent and out drip a wet-winged Monarch.   White and gold butterflies were most common.  Every now and then a blue butterfly would appear and that was an event that delighted everyone.  Today living in the city I don’t see many butterflies at all unless they are on exhibit at local science or natural history museums.  But whatever I experienced in my youth continues to inform my creative self to this day because I continue to draw upon these winged creatures for inspiration.

I have had a coulpe of good days in the studio, and things are picking up a little now that we’re approaching Christmas. I had a really good photosession today and I’ll post some photos from that later

I’m still working on my project so here’s a couple of more shots from that

:D

I have som butterflies laying around the studio in case I need it for a photoshoot. They’re the perfect size to put in someone’s hair

:D

Okay, so this is not the best shot, but I was a little pressed for time today. All things considered, it didn’t come out too bad

It’s butterfly time.  : )

Tirumala limniace

 

The Blue Tiger (Tirumala limniace) is a butterfly found in India that belongs to the Crows and Tigers, that is, the Danaid group of the Brush-footed butterflies family. This butterfly shows gregarious migratory behaviour in southern India.

 

Description

Upperside black, with bluish-white semihyaline spots and streaks. Fore wing: interspace 1 two streaks, sometimes coalescent, with a spot beyond cell: a streak from base and an outwardly indented spot at its apex; a large oval spot at base of interspace 2, another at base of interspace 3, with a smaller spot beyond it towards termen; five obliquely placed preapical streaks, and somewhat irregular subterminal and terminal series of spots, the latter the smaller. Hind wing: interspaces 1b, 1a, and 1 with streaks from base, double in the latter two, cell with a forked broad streak, the lower branch with a hook, or spur-like slender loop, at base of 4 and 5 a broad elongate streak, and at base of 6 a quadrate spot; beyond these again a number of scattered unequal subterminal and terminal spots.

Underside: basal two-thirds of fore wing dusky black, the apex and hind wing olive-brown; the spots and streaks much as on the upperside, Antennae, head and thorax black, the latter two spotted and streaked with, white; abdomen dusky above, ochraceous spotted with white beneath. Male secondary sex-mark in form

Food-plants

• Asclepias
• Calotropis
• Heterostemma
• Marsdenia
• Dregea volubilis
• Heterostemma cuspidatum
• Hoya viridiflora
• Marsdenia tenacissima
• Crotalaria spp.
• Epibaterium spp.
• Soya

Larva

Yellowish white; 3rd and 12th segments, each with a pair of fleshy filaments, black and greenish white; each of the segments with four transverse black bars, the second bar on all broader than the others, bifurcated laterally, a yellow longitudinal line on each side; head, feet and claspers spotted with black

Pupa

“Green with golden scattered spots and beaded dorsal crescent”

Range

South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Habit

This species migrates extensively during the Monsoons in southern India. The migratory populations have been observed to be nearly entirely consisting of males

 

Its been a pretty hectic month, especially with the Holidays coming up and trying to get new items out before then!

We have been working on some new items such as our new “Piggy Bank” Tins. These are all hand painted by Eugene! If you want one custom made feel free to contact us with your request.

We have also added 14 new hair clips. All hair clips were customized by us to give them an elegant style. If you want a custom hair clip contact us so that we can arrange something.

There are a couple more items that we will be adding within the week so please check back for those!

like butterflies?

it’s 320am and i’m due for bed. will add these to the store later so check back soon!

xoxo

26th Nov update : these designs have been added to the store!

click here to go see!