Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 2)
White Orange tip Male on Kalanchoe |
Food collection: Most of the time, a butterfly is imagined nectoring a flower. This is obvious as most of butterflies do the same. Flower is widespread food source for them. More importantly it is available in the same season when butterfly breeds : pre and post monsoon season. Common flowers like Lantena, siam weeds, amaranth, snakeweed, turnsole are favorites for them.
Tawney Rajah Male on tree sap |
Any
source of mineral is attractive to butterflies. Human excreta is no
exception for that. Swating during trekking is "automatic"
betting. Backpacks, socks and human body wet with sweat are good
examples. I have seen commander, Nawab, baronet etc attracted to it.
Even on some sweat drops on camera attracts them. Another
source with 'bet prospective' is the human urine. But not any urine,
my experience says. If somebody drinks on the previous night, and
uses the urine from the next day, it serves.
Mud-puddling: Mud-puddling
is vital food collection activity of most butterfly species where
they obtain minerals from mud. Usually males are seen mud puddling as
they require certain mineral for reproduction. females of very
species like Gaudy Baron are seen mud puddling. In Sahyadri
(Maharashtra part), water holes are rare in pre-monsson season. Thus
in jungles even on a small puddle thousands of butterflies may be
seen puddling. However this doesn't happens daily. One must
be lucky to see so many species coming together at a single place for
the 'ritual'.
"Mud
puddling" term is bit confusing for me. The best puddling sites
are the ones alongside of the river. Here the presence of
sand is more useful for them to penetrate their proboscis . Sand
particles are larger than soil particles, hence allows the water
to flow between them.
In
North-east region scenario is quite different. Here river are
perennial, sand beds are available. Puddling is seen almost through
out the year. Vast sand planes and constantly flowing fresh water
brings thousands of butterflies here. Once a butterfly
inserts proboscis in the sand, it will sit their for few minutes and
will allow to take fantastic photographs. One has to wait till it
settles down.
Mu puddling flock of butterflies shot at Namdapha |
Territory
defense: Some
of the butterflies do not allows other one of any species to appear
in its territory. I sometime hate chocolate pansies for such
activity. They chase the intruder for short duration then comes back
to its original place. Reflexes are extraordinary when a butterfly
protects its territory. In Namdapha, we saw constable seating high up
on a medium sized tree and chasing whichever butterfly enters in its
premise. To test it, we tossed a small stone near to it. Not to our
surprise it attacked the stone as well.
By Paresh Kale
Very Informative with Nice Captures Paresh...
ReplyDeleteThanks :-)
Delete