Thread: Thai Butterfly Photos

^^That looks too much like the tomato hornworm here in the US. Kill it!

Originally Posted by Shutree

One reason I keep odd native plants that appear naturally is that I assume they each have some place in the circle of life and I wait to see what they do.

Well done Shu, i too try to leave areas wild to let nature take its course. i love spending time looking at what lives there, mainly i'm a terrible praying mantis addict so the more insects the more pray for them. but it also encourages bird life confession over.

Originally Posted by misskit

^^That looks too much like the tomato hornworm here in the US. Kill it!

Not guilty misskit but, you're right, it does look similar to the tomato hornworm and tobacco hornworm.

A male Leopard Lacewing decided to pose for me yesterday...

A fourth instar Lime Butterfly caterpillar with camouflage making it look very similar to bird droppings.

I now check the gf's small potted shrubs daily and keep finding those big green hawkmoth caterpillars, although not so big now I check.

Then I found a couple of different beasts on the same plants. Also hawkmoths?

^ Yes, the caterpillar can be green or brown depending on the species. The identifying feature is the single horn at the rear making it from the Sphingidae family.

Originally Posted by Troy

the Sphingidae family.

It seems that there are literally hundreds of moths in this family.

All these caterpillars and only once have I ever seen a moth. I think they come out in the early evening, about the same time as the mosquitoes when I am indoors.

get a light outside after dark, should discourage the mozzies and attract the moths.

^ Tropical Swallowtail moth, Lyssa zampa.

There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of these little butterflies over my sad excuse for a lawn. Having no grass seems to suit them.

They are very active, settling only briefly. I have been trying to get a picture for days. Very small too, maybe 2cm wingspan.

Thats a nice crop of those clovery type weeds you have Shu, those are bastard things whose seeds spike you.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Thats a nice crop of those clovery type weeds you have Shu, those are bastard things whose seeds spike you.

It gets worse. I have hundreds of these prickly stemmed b@st@rds. The ones with touch-sensitive leaves and many fine thorns on the stems.

And those

Originally Posted by Shutree

There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of these little butterflies over my sad excuse for a lawn. Having no grass seems to suit them.

Do you want to borrow my gardener Shutree? You could then get a lawn that looks like this!



This chap found a place to settle where it wouldn't get trodden on by the dogs. It must have had at least a 3 inch wing span.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Do you want to borrow my gardener Shutree?

That's a very kind offer. I asked the orchids and the orchids said "No!"

One of the curiosities, living out here on the edge of nowhere in a time of Covid, is the impossibility of finding a gardener. I could do with a labourer type of person say a couple of mornings each week. Everyone around here grew up in a farming family but no one wants to work outside.

^^ Spirama helicina

Originally Posted by Shutree

There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of these little butterflies over my sad excuse for a lawn. Having no grass seems to suit them.

They are very active, settling only briefly. I have been trying to get a picture for days. Very small too, maybe 2cm wingspan.

There are several species of blues that are common in the garden this time of year. Unfortunately, to distinguish between them, you need to take photos of the underside of the wings that are good enough to show the number and position of the spots that identify them. You really need a macro and a lot of patience to get decent enough pictures.

I have a grass bank so that I can be at eye level with them but it still takes a lot of time to get good shots.

I lost track of the Lime Butterfly caterpillar for a while but wife tracked it down this morning a couple of branches across and having reached fifth instar stage:


Notice the twin horns at the back, which are characteristic of swallow tail butterflies.


Since I had the macro fitted, I had a look at a few blues that were skipping around this morning. I was expecting to see a couple of different species but they all ended up being lesser grass blues Zizina otis - Wikipedia









They really are tiny little things and didn't stop anywhere long enough for me to take pictures easily. I'm getting too old to be crawling around on my hands and knees and I needed to get within a metre to get a reasonable shot and even then the photos are heavily cropped.

Another fat boy eating the gf's flowers. Not sure if this is a different moth in the same family or just a colour variation of the last one. Quite a bright orange in real life, the picture doesn't catch the colour well.

I guess this one is a moth, despite the way it holds its wings. Distinctive red eyes. I spent some time wading through hundreds of moth pictures and haven't found it yet.

^ Easy to be caught out with skippers, but it is a butterfly from the Hesperiidae family, commonly know as skippers. The tips of the antennae are the clue.

It is a common redeye, Manama aria. There is a wiki page but I'm no good with links when using my phone.

I had a giant redeye butterfly in the kitchen last week. I'll dig out the photo later....

^ Apologies to the typo in the latin name, the link to the common red eye wiki page: Matapa aria - Wikipedia


...and the giant red eye Gangara thyrsis - Wikipedia

Originally Posted by Troy

^ Apologies to the typo in the latin name, the link to the common red eye wiki page: Matapa aria - Wikipedia


...and the giant red eye Gangara thyrsis - Wikipedia

Good photo.

I searched for Manama aria and got a lot of fetish escorts.

Originally Posted by Shutree

Manama aria

That's where he went