Beautiful Swallowtail Butterflies

Swallowtail butterflies are commonly seen in Hong Kong urban parks. They are considered to be among the most beautiful butterflies in the world.

 

Rose Hellen 

 

Great Mormon (Female)

   

Common Rose

 
Common Mormon

 
 

Paris Peacock

They are famous for their large sized black wings and colourful patterns as well as their elegant appearance.  

Great Mormon (Female) 

Common Mormon

Rose Helen

In addition, their beautiful long “tails” on the hindwings make them one of the most popular butterflies in the world.

Paris Peacock

Commmon Mormon 

 

Paris Peacock

 

Great Mormon (Female)

A Thirsty Butterfly

  While most of the wintering birds have left for the North, the butterfly season has just begun in Hong Kong.

   The increasing temperature combined with high humidity provides an ideal climate for butterflies. But sometimes the summer heat is unbearable even for the butterflies. The other day I saw a thirsty Paris Peacock butterfly having a drink in a shallow stream.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sometimes we disagree, 

Sometimes we argue, 

Occasionally we even fight, 

But most of the time, we enjoy each other’s company, 

Most importantly, we love each other to bits! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Butterflies in Hong Kong (3)---Papaya smoothie party (continued)

Unlike the Browns, most of the Nymphs are quite colourful. 

This is a Gaudy Baron, a very beautiful butterfly, mainly found in South and Southeast Asia.

 

Gaudy Baron is not commonly seen in Hong Kong. Actually this was the first time I saw a Gaudy Baron. I couldn’t believe it was in my garden! Its wingspan ranges from 6-7cm and displays sexual dimorphisim. This one shown here is a male, while the female has black bordered white bands on the upperside fore wing.

This is a Blue Admiral. Its size is similar to the Gaudy Baron. While the upperside of the wing has an eye-catching wide blue strip, the underside of the wings look like dried leaves helping them to camouflage themselves in the forest.

This is a Yellow Rajah, a relatively big Nymphalid butterfly with a wingspan ranging form 7-9cm. It is mainly found in India and is uncommon in Hong Kong.

The Yellow Rajah seems to be a “bully” as you can see it is trying to use its proboscis to push another butterfly away from the papaya. This is a new observation for me to see a butterfly using its proboscis as a weapon. I wonder if anyone has seen this behaviour before.

The Large Faun is very easy to identify because of the white circular spots on the underside of its wings. It is common in Hong Kong but I was quite surprised to see one in the garden.

Butterflies in Hong Kong (2)---Papaya smoothie party

When I came back from a short visit to UK yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see a dozen butterflies having a smoothie party in my garden!

 

The hot and humid weather in Hong Kong is ideal for papaya trees. They can grow from a seed to a tree in just a few months. A couple of years ago, I planted some seeds from a papaya fruit in the garden and within a year, I had several huge papaya trees and hundreds of papayas!

I guess when I was away last week, some ripe papayas fell off the trees and became rotten. The decayed papayas attracted some fruit “eating” butterflies to my garden.

 

While most butterflies feed on nectar from flowers, the Nymphs (Family Nymphalidae) and the Browns (Family Satyridae) prefer decaying fruit juice. The butterflies that visited my garden belong to these two families.

Because of their feeding habits, most of the fruit “eating” butterflies are not as colourful as their nectar “eating” counterparts.  They are not fast flyers and tend to fly low in the undergrowth in semi-shaded environments. 

This is an Evening Brown on the left (and below), a large sized Brown commonly seen  in Hong Kong with a wingspan of 6-7cm.  Most Brown family butterflies have brown coloured wings with “eyespots” on both sides to mimic the eyes of large animals for self-protection.  As you can guess from its name, Evening Brown is mostly active at dusk. 

This is a Bamboo Tree Brown on the right, smaller than the Evening Brown with a wingspan of 5cm. The Bamboo Tree Browns are also commonly seen in Hong Kong.

Below is a Dark-Band Bush Brown, similar size to the Bamboo Tree Brown with different patterns on their wings.