Brown butterfly

Back at the plantation today, the ladies were harvesting the main crop swan plant, correctly identified from yesterdays blipped flower head by DawgGal, well done, into bunches of stems rather than picking the curious fruit balls. The spherical seed pods were very soft and light to the touch, light green in color and covered in prominent spaced out hairs. I attempted some dialogue with the farming beauties (slight exaggeration) to try and establish the use of the plant. My suggestion of makan (food) was met with loud wails of extreme danger, so safe to assume that you won't find the unassuming sphericals on the restaurant menu. They did jabber on, trying to explain the use of the plant, but my Sundanese leaves a lot to be desired. So, if any of you know the usage of this crop, I would be very interested.

There was lots of reading about milkweed, to which this plant is related, in conjunction with monarchs and if you want to attract the stunning monarchs to your garden then milkweed is an essential addition to your herbaceous borders. The monarchs feed on a variety of flower nectar so make sure you have plenty of general flowering plants in the area to feed the butterflies and they will lay the eggs on the milkweed. Part of the plant's defense is the poisonous sap which deters most insects, but the colorfully striped monarch caterpillars are immune and even absorb the toxins and use them to repel their predators, making themselves in turn unappetizing. I also noticed that the plant suffers from a severe attack from aphids and so I am expecting to see an array of ladybirds in the future, nothing as yet.

The ground was very muddy and wet, so taking a leaf from the ladies who were working the field, I parked my flip-flops and went native. Quite a pleasant feeling, the smooth, cool mud oozing up between my toes, but my feet having been hidden behind laced leather and woolly socks for the best part of fifty years, I was well outside my comfort zone. There didn't seem to be a great deal happening, so I cut my losses without a single shot and moved on.

As good as the plantation is, there are going to be a lot of damp days as the wet season is well under way, so I decided to look for another location to add to my repertoire. I headed down hill a couple of miles, as I know there is a section of road towards the college that has not been inhabited yet. I spotted a small patch of grassy land, so parked up to investigate. As I reached the top of a grassy mound, the land opened up into a huge field of the same grassland.

There were lots of dragons overhead and plenty of butterflies around too, so I setup my camera and started a patrol. There were a few metalled roads leading into the land but going nowhere. It struck me that the land has probably been earmarked for building, but as is quite common here, the budget ran out.

I collected shots of pansies, both male and female, a stunning dark brown butterfly with huge white spots, an enormous hopper which I actually thought was a small bird when I first saw it, had to be close to 3.5" long.

Back at the lab, I could not get excited about the results, I just didn't quite nail any of the subjects, so I went with this little brown butterfly with it's splendid array of spots. I'll nail the rest of the more impressive critters another day.

For the sake of search tags and references, I have decided to call this location the Bandung common.

Identification - Forest Bush Brown - Mycalesis orseis

Dave