Thread: Thai Butterfly Photos

I walked past our 'cigar' plant today and noticed it had been decimated.



It was pretty easy to find the culprits. More of these nettle caterpillars. They must have some appetite.



There were nine of them, plus a couple of others. These went over the wall into the neighbour's garden.

There was this beautiful big, black and yellow butterfly flying around our gardenia tree today.





And a yellow, hairy moth sat on the outside sofa.

Originally Posted by Mendip

There was this beautiful big, black and yellow butterfly flying around our gardenia tree today.

Those are attractive, there are a few around here but I have never seen one settle in the garden.

I am pleased with this shrub I planted. The butterflies love it. There were 4 different species there at the same time this morning. The Common Rose didn't wait for the photo op. The other 3 are here, nothing new, I just enjoy the variety.

This was big... at least the size of a sparrow.

Nice pic. Is that a Great Mormon?

I have never seen one, it just happens that I was trying to identify a couple of butterflies I saw recently and noticed a picture of something very similar to yours.

^ Yes it is a Great Mormon and they are big with a wingspan between 4 and 5 inches. They fly by as a flash of blue and it took me ages before I managed to photograph one.

Originally Posted by Mendip

There was this beautiful big, black and yellow butterfly flying around our gardenia tree today.

I think this might have been the same type of butterfly. Poor photos, this thing did not settle at all in the time I followed it around. I am not expecting a call from National Geographic any time soon.
This is the only one of these I have seen actually in the garden. I have seen others, similar or the same, always flying over, maybe 4 or 5 metres up.

There have been so many butterflies on this plant, I suppose it was only a matter of time before there were caterpillars.
Quite extraordinarily complex things.

^ One of the Tussock moths, a bit of a pest on shrubs. Careful picking them as the hairs are mildly toxic.

Originally Posted by Troy

^ One of the Tussock moths, a bit of a pest on shrubs. Careful picking them as the hairs are mildly toxic.

Thanks. I was careful not to touch it, most things in this garden seem out to hurt me. It was my first time to see one of these. Now that you tell me what it is I can look it up:

Tussock Moth caterpillars (from the family Lymantriidae) are voracious eaters capable of defoliating entire forests.

To insect lovers, however, Tussock Moth caterpillars are known for their striking tufts of hair, or tussocks. Many species exhibit four characteristic clumps of bristles on their backs, giving them the appearance of a toothbrush. Some have longer pairs of tufts near the head and rear. Judged on looks alone, these fuzzy caterpillars might appear harmless but touch one with a bare finger and you'll feel as if you've been pricked by fiberglass. Some species, such as the Brown-tail, will even leave you with a persistent and painful rash.

Originally Posted by Troy

One of the Tussock moths

After a bit of searching, I'll put it down as a Brown Tussock Moth, Olene mendosa.

Olene mendosa species page - THAILAND NATURE PROJECT

Plenty of caterpillars munching their way around my garden now. This is one I haven't seen before, very well comouflaged. It is about 4 inches long. (That is about 10cm for Mendip. )

Thaksin Maharat National Park - Tak

^^ I think it is one of the Lappet moths from the Lasiocampidae family, possibly a brown lappet moth or something similar. Don't pick these ones up either because the tufts of hair along the sides of the moth are mildly toxic.

^ I would guess at a white ermine moth, Spilosoma lubicipeda, but it is only a guess as there are a number of different moths with similar looking caterpillars.

Originally Posted by Troy

^^ I think it is one of the Lappet moths from the Lasiocampidae family, possibly a brown lappet moth or something similar. Don't pick these ones up either because the tufts of hair along the sides of the moth are mildly toxic.

Thanks, Troy. I looked up Lappet moths and that looks right to me. There are many variations, some similarities. It seems they can be more than mildly toxic, some people can suffer very serious reactions.

I read that they mostly rely on staying totally still but some can have a shock response if the camouflage fails. If I see it again I might give it a poke with a long stick to see what happens.

Incidentally, it was difficult to get a good shot with the phone camera because the auto-focus steadfastedly refused to focus on the caterpillar. I am guessing that this is because the animal is designed to be camouflaged and those hairs help it meld into the background in a way that confuses the technology and probably would-be predators.

^ As far as I understand, autofocus requires contrast and the lack thereof between the caterpillar and tree will make focusing difficult. A reflector on one side might help but manual focus is a better option.

I was showing the limitations of camera light metering and focus last week. As an example, try taking a photo of a sheet of plain white paper and then a sheet of matt black paper. You will need to be in manual focus and the resulting image will be approximately the same.

This moth parked itself on the front step the other day.



I thought later it was dead, maybe one of the dogs had trodden on it.



Later I found it halfway up the front door, so apparently not dead, just taking the motionless defence to an extreme.

^ Creatonotos gangis Creatonotos gangis - Wikipedia

Originally Posted by Troy

^ Creatonotos gangis Creatonotos gangis - Wikipedia

Thanks. I couldn't find it through browsing online. Maybe it was interested in my nearby pomegranate. I'll need to check.

There are a few of these around at the moment.

I was walking aimlessly around the garden, as I do, and noticed this native plant had been taken over by something. Many leaves half-eaten then rolled up.



A bit of investigation confirmed that the culprits are caterpillars:



There were quite a few rolled up leaves which all appeared overnight. Oddly though, two days later, the caterpillars were all gone. I guess something hungry found them.

Another hawkmoth caterpillar, Macroglossum corythus - Wikipedia

Originally Posted by Troy

^^ The butterfly is a grey pansy...Junonia atlites - Wikipedia

I don't know what the caterpillar is, there are quite a few leaf rolling species in Thailand. It could be one of the silkworm moths and looks like another species to avoid touching.

Thanks again. I recently bought a butterfly book online and it is now sitting waiting for me in UK at my daughter's home. It seems books are not supposed to be posted to Thailand. (Really?)

I looked at various leaf rollers online and couldn't find a close match yet. 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.