Butterfly Journal

Home

Indian Butterflies

Your Comments On This Page:
Sign	View

Butterfly Journal
April 2003
Amber Habib

Common Rose Common Lime Common Mormon Common Jay White Orange Tip Yellow Orange Tip Pioneer Large Cabbage White Mottled Emigrant Plain Tiger Blue Pansy Painted Lady

Delhi, April 1: By the end of March Painted Ladies had become scarce. The current most common species is the Large Cabbage White.

Aligarh, April 13: Three days in Aligarh. Weather too hot to allow much time in the open. Found two Plain Tiger caterpillars which had red in the bases of their tentacles and also in the black portions of their bodies. Large Cabbage Whites were abundant. Found a group of their caterpillars - about 30 big ones in a 3 fet by 2 feet bed of nasturtium. As they were all of the same size they were likely from the same batch of eggs. A mating pair of Cabbage Whites sat on a leaf for half an hour starting at about 10am. Then they were disturbed and flew off (still joined - one flying, the other hanging) into a patch of weeds. Other species: Pea Blue, Common Silverline (one and very worn), Blue Pansy (couple), Common Castor (one), Common Lime (common), Common Mormon (one), Plain Tiger (common), Pioneer (common), White Orange Tip (one), Yellow Orange Tip (couple).

Delhi, April 21: In college, the most common butterflies now are Pioneers and Yellow Orange Tips. I am typing this at noon and they are very active at this time.

Delhi, April 30 Did not manage to put in much time specifically looking for butterflies. But here are my general impressions about the past month. By the end of the month, Pioneers were the most visible butterflies, and it was common to find fifteen or twenty on a single flowering bush or on a patch of weeds. Cabbage Whites had become scarce though it was also difficult to pick them out from among the Pioneers. Some were around -- I found a recently dead female on campus. Yellow Orange Tips are also common, as are Plain Tigers. Of the swallowtails, the Common Jay is still found in numbers, the Lime and Mormon only on occasion. The Syntomis moths are also gone, though a day ago I saw a caterpillar crossing a path, that could have been of their type: small, fat, black with bristles. Not cylindrical -- much fatter at the rump.