I thought I would share a few of the butterfly photos. I wasn't sure exactly where to put them but since I photographed most of them in or around the gardens of my extended family this part of the forum seemed appropriate.

I am only a keen amateur when it comes to butterflies so there may be a mistake or two in identification. Feel free to make corrections if you spot any mistakes, All the photos are taken hand-held, as in no tripod, for the purposes of identifying the butterfly rather than pretty pictures but I think I managed both in a few cases.

All the pictures were taken in the Sakon Nakhon 47120 area unless otherwise stated and I have noted wet or dry season where appropriate. Feel free to add your photos to the thread, adding a rough area and month if you can...so I know where to go looking for them

I decided not to post them in any particular order as additions would muck that up anyway. So without further ado, here is a very common starter for ten:



The Common Rose (Pachliopta aristolochiae) is pretty much inedible and the crimson body and spots forewarns potential predators. This one and the one below were taken in the dry season (January) but they are far more common during the monsoon season as I found out during my visit a couple of weeks ago (August)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachliopta_aristolochiae



If possible I will try and show the upper and undersides of the different species since it makes them easier to identify but it is not often easy since, with many, you need to snap them in flight to get the upper side.

Next up is the Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) and in this case it is the sub-species romulus as can be seen by the red spot on the hindwing of the male (below the white band)....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_polytes


However, the distinction is with the female, which mimics the Common Rose in appearance and flight so predators don't bother it. Fooled me as well to begin with, not with the Common Rose, because the body is black rather than crimson, but with the Red Helen (Papilio helenus) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_helenus
These were taken in August. I saw something similar flying in the woods during the dry season but they never settled long enough to take a picture. These were taken after a day and night of heavy rain and they came down to ground level.

Next up is the Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus), which is pretty common in both the dry and wet seasons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_demoleus

Upperside taken as it dried itself out following a downpour in August ...



...and the underside of one taking a drink next to the house in January. They fly fast and a jolly long way as I found out when trying to follow a few during the early stages of my butterfly stalking. In the end I simply got lucky a few days later.


The last of the swallowtails that I managed to snap is the Tailed Jay (Graphium agamemnon) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphium_agamemnon. This was taken in January and I didn't see it during the wet season at all. It may just be that the plants I found it on before were not in flower and, unlike in the dry season, I was not prepared to venture into the woods during August.