Butterflies in my yard

I rate this very colourful, Common Jezebel as the Queen as far as my yard is concerned. She rarely flies low, leave alone sit, except for that one time perhaps when I was ready with my camera!  Luck!  The above shot is one of my best which inspired my friend Nancy to prepare a special greeting card for me using that picture I posted on "Dave's Garden"!

Who does not want to stop and watch a colourful butterfly flutter by?  If you have a few flowering plants, shrubs and trees in your yard, the butterflies find them. It is for many reasons butterflies are great attractions to children and I grew up watching them in our yard, which hosted much greenery.  I still do.  Earlier we just watched them without observing much.  We chased them fun. We wanted to catch them by their colourful wings, but they always flew away beyond reach. When they were resting, they sensed our approach and quickly escaped to safer places. Cats can catch them with their skill!  But we had to content ourselves when we found a dead specimen in our garden occasionally and wondered about their lovely pattern on their wings.  How weightless it was!  We studied the butterfly life cycle in school and wondered how they were caught, mounted and exhibited in laboratories in colleges for study and research.   Long later I learnt that they used a butterfly catching net for that purpose and it was through a comic book, of all places!  

Have you ever wondered how different are moths from butterflies they appear similar on first glimpse?  Just look at this link and find out: http://library.thinkquest.org/J002124/moths.htm 

Left - butterfly; Right - Moth

I recently learnt that in the US there are butterfly farms that sell pupae.  I reproduce below some lines my friend, Sandra, wrote to me when I asked how she managed a picture of a butterfly sitting on her hand.  What she wrote was interesting.  Interesting because I did not know. 

"Find or buy the pupae once they are out and ready to fly put them in a container and into a cooler with ice(do not let the butterfly touch the ice) for 15 or more minutes. This gives you enough time to take their pictures, before they warm up enough to fly.  Here these kind of farms raise butterflies for release at weddings and such.  It also sells eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises and plants for butterflies.  If you can catch a butterfly without harming it you can do the chilling and get it to sit for your pictures! I plan to build a butterfly raising house this winter. I will have the food plants for the caterpillars and nectar plants for the butterflies. As soon as the caterpillars turn into chrysalises I will move them to a cloth cube.  When the butterflies emerge and ready to fly I can then chill them to take their pictures."

Here in India, such things may be unheard of!  But we can boast of butterfly parks.  Butterfly gardening is a branch of its own.  See this Wikipedia link for some information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_gardening 
Mysore's Karanji Kere boasts of a butterfly garden.


Ever thought of how the word *butterfly* came into being?

http://blogger17.hubpages.com/hub/Flutterby

No need to open the link as I have extracted the content below:

Many things are named for obvious reasons. In example, an orange was called an orange because of its color. Butterflies could be called butterflies because of a couple of different reasons...

1. The word “butterfly” has been around for a long time. One thought about where it's name may have come from is the theory that the name was supposed to be“flutter-by,” because of the way they flutter by... If that is truly the case, then somewhere along the way their name has been switched around to butterfly.

2. A false etymology claims that the word butterfly came from a Spoonerism of “flutterby”; however, the Old English word was buttorfleoge and a similar word occurs in Dutch, apparently because butterflies were thought to be witches in disguise who stole milk and butter at night.

 

3. An alternative folk etymology, current in Great Britain, is that the name originated as a contraction of term butter-coloured fly referring to the Brimstone Butterfly, Gonepteryx rhamni, often the first butterfly of Spring.

The word butterfly later lead to idioms, phrases, riddles, quotes and what not.  There is a style in swimming called 'butterfly stroke' and there is a 'butterfly valve' in mechanics!


Here is a popular riddle "Why did Tom throw butter out of the window?".  

Answer: Because Tom wanted to see "butter fly".

There are myriad quotes on the butterfly.  A few impressive ones:

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. [Richard Buckminster Fuller]

I'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. [Muhammad Ali - boxer]

The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly get all the publicity. [George Carlin]

Butterflies have been visiting my yard dotted with a few shrubs and trees.  But once the digital camera came, I was able to observe more and see how many varieties visited.  Trying to shoot pictures of them is a thrilling circus and great fun.... if you have time!  Some varieties prefer the grass [see two pictures below] and if they are to be shot, we have to sometimes wait in the prostrate position!

I was simply amazed at the number when I sorted and counted.  I have got many of the fluttering visitors identified through books or from my knowledgeable friends on the internet, esp. from Dave's Garden.  There are a few still waiting to 'get a name'.

When a digital photo is seen on the computer screen, it looks beautiful.  When it flutters around, we miss the actual colours.

Shooting close-ups is a very tricky exercise.  [I cannot do the chilling which my friend Sandra informed.]  The slightest disturbance we may cause with our movement or to the leaves of the plant on which it sits can make it to fly away.  They are usually extremely sensitive. It may never sit for a shoot again where you can step and reach for a full view!  It requires a lot of patience and I tell you, a lot of luck.  A zoom lens is a boon if you have one.  But I managed this one of the 'Green Triangle' from just a few centimetres.

Take a lQQk at some butterflies that have been *captured* in my yard:

Lemon Butterfly

Blue Mormon - lQQk at its wingspan!

Common Mormon

Lemon Pansy

Tawny Coaster

Wonder why it is called as 'Crow'.

And this is a "Plain Tiger"! 

This was taken in a field near Chamundi Hill.

Blue Tiger!

Yellow Pansy

Common Peirrot

Red Peirrot

Common Emigrant

Common Grass Yellow - note the dark brown tipped wings

Common Wanderer

This is commonly called as Green Triangle - also called Tailed Jay.

A dead specimen of Large Oakblue.  It rarely sits for a 'breather' so to say.  As such I could manage only that!

Common Five Ring  - it is a small butterfly

I wondered what this butterfly - a Common Baron was doing in the mud. Observe its green glowing proboscis pictured below.

 Later I learnt that it was 'mud-puddling'.  

Let me share about this from http://insects.about.com/od/butterfliesmoths/f/why_butterflies_puddle.htm

On sunny days after a rain, you may see butterflies gathering around the edges of mud puddles. What could they be doing?

Here is what:

Butterflies get most of their nutrition from flower nectar. Though rich in sugar, nectar lacks some important nutrients the butterflies need for reproduction. For those, butterflies visit puddles.

By sipping moisture from mud puddles, butterflies take in salts and minerals from the soil. This behavior is called puddling, and is mostly seen in male butterflies. That's because males incorporate those extra salts and minerals into their sperm.

When butterflies mate, the nutrients are transferred to the female through the sperm. These extra salts and minerals improve the viability of the female's eggs, increasing the couple's chances of passing on their genes to another generation.

Isn't it interesting?

I've more images in this web album.  Please do see.


Separate album for moths - 28 images as of now.
https://picasaweb.google.com/dinakar58/MothsUpload?authuser=0&feat=directlink


Caterpillars are sorted here, but many are not yet identified.
https://picasaweb.google.com/dinakar58/CaterpillarsUpl?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL7Dtr6Y0e6XLA&feat=directlink


Young nature-lovers like Abhijna Desai can be an inspiration.  In fact, she has helped in identification of a few butterflies!

Mysore Banyan Trees

Some Banyan Trees of Mysore

The above widget will take you to the album containing pictures I have taken of many trees in and around Mysore.

Do take a look - click on it.

* * * * * *

The Banyan Tree is always an interesting one to look at or be with it, for its prop roots, esp. if the tree is very old, notwithstanding the ghost stories we heard as kids. Its shady canopy is of course not to be fortotten.

Not for nothing it is the National Tree of India!

(Spelled "Banian", it gives a different meaning to us in India. It is referred to the vest men wear, usually of cotton or cotton knitwear! Of course, "Mysore Banians" are also famous!)

(Image from the Net). Banians with sleeves are also popular. Tiruppur city is renown to manufacture these.

Back to the Banyan Tree.

When we were young, it was fun to ask others to tell (in kannada) "aalada marada keLage santhey" while covering the nostrils. It means "Shandy below the Banyan tree". But when uttered with nostrils closed, the 'santhey' would sound 'satthey' meaning 'I died'. The sentence would then mean "I died below the Banyan Tree."!! Then there would be some laughter following this little joke.

Kids can do a 'Tarzan' holding the prop roots that hang down freely. In parks they are natural playthings! On the one on Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road here, as a young boy, I have done that with those prop roots each time we passed by it, because most of us used to go on foot to places that were 'walkable distance'. So we children could play as we went along with family members. This spot was an attraction actually, because the side of the pavement sloped down to the low compound and the gap facilitated the swing and we could land back on the pavement with the oscillation. At times we jumped off the vertical stone near the pavement, holding the root and getting the needed momentum for the oscillation. The root had to be thin and 'holdable' for the smallish hands.

This is the tree as it is today. Those roots on the right have thickened in almost four decades.

Find out what a Banyan Tree is in this link and its medicinal value.

Dodda Alada Mara or the Big Banyan Tree is near Bangalore (Ramohalli).

A few miles east of Lalith Mahal on Bannur Road (Alanahalli) there is one huge Banyan Tree that the villaefolk worship. I happened to pass by it in 2003, on my way to Hosahalli, to the house of the man, Yajman Honnaiah, who used to sell that seasonal 'soppina kallekai' (chickpea) at our doorstep. Here is the tree:

The most famous Great Banyan Tree in our country for its history and spread, is at Kolkata. I had seen a picture of it in "Glimpes of India" published by C.B.Burrows, Bombay, in 1895, a wonderful compilation by J.H.Furneaux and wondered if I could see it when I grew up. The time came by chance, in 1999 but at that time, I had no camera. But here is the picture from that old book in my library. I had been curious how vast it spanned. But when we went near it, it was not much, because I learnt that the tree had been damaged by a severe storm in the 1950s and hence had thinned down. But it had withstood the great cyclone in 1864. I saw many delicate and precarious branches artificially supported as a protective measure. I must reveal that it was this Tree which attracted me to the Botanical Gardens there in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on our way back from Durgapur. A like-minded friend (Ram Sharma) had accompanied me.

Let's see what we have in some places of Mysore.

The widget seen above contains many pictures I recently took, of trees which I have been passing under almost all my life. But never counted them until today! There was no reason of course, to do that then.

During the fruiting season the entire road under them would be 'carpeted' with fallen fruit, sticking to our soles as we trod on them. Walking on roads was not a risky thing, say 35 years back: hardly any traffic! This is what I recollected when I wanted to take pictures and retraced my old steps. In the bargain, I could also locate some younger trees starting to send out their famous prop roots. I hope they all will survive the urbanization (and road widening) that is progressing at a rapid pace!

Kukkarahalli Lake premises has some beautiful trees and the nearby Baden Powell school has the big one and a small one. You can see quite a pictures of their prop roots also in the widget above. There are a few also at the Maharaja's College Grounds, the Manuvana Parks and some on Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road (now "Jayelbee road"!).

I was shocked to see a couple of branches of a huge banyan near Lakshmipuram Police Station, being cut some years back. But I was relieved that only those two branches which had drooped dangerously low only were cut. This is that tree (on JLB Road).

This inspired me.
Links in it are also handy.

Now on facebook as well.

Let Banyans hang around!