It has been a while since I went out on a butterfly expedition in Dehradun. A visit by a friend, Bala, from Kerala meant that I had kept a whole week aside to travel with him in Uttarakhand searching for these winged fairies. The first day of our butterfly watching sessions began poorly. Clouds loomed overhead and my initial plan of driving a fair distance to access some far-flung areas in the surrounding areas of Dehradun went down the tube. There was no point in driving for an hour in search of butterflies if it was going to rain, was it? So a second plan was executed, of waiting to see if it would clear and then driving to a nearer location.
The sun played hide and seek and our morning began timidly. Only a few Common Castor butterflies were seen flying near their larval host plant (the plant on which they lay their eggs). We spent the next three hours looking for and photographing butterflies, and ended the day nicely with over forty species spotted.
The highlight of the morning was the sighting of a large, funky butterfly called the oakleaf. Two species of oakleaf butterfly can be found in Western Himalayas – the Peninsular Malaya Leaf Butterfly (Kallima limborgii) and the Orange Oakleaf Butterfly (Kallima inachus). The first species has only been recently reported from Kumaon, based on a specimen collected many years ago. So, every oakleaf that I saw was examined carefully.
Could this one turn out to be the little sighted Malay Leaf Butterfly? Unfortunately, it was not to be, and the butterfly we spotted was the more commonly seen Orange Oakleaf butterfly.
The Orange Oakleaf is called so because its underside resembles the shape of a leaf. Being brown and resembling a leaf (see the picture on the right), when the butterfly sits amidst the foliage it is completely camouflaged. The fun begins when the butterfly opens its wings, and its upperside colours, which are a stunning blue and orange, reveal themselves. The butterfly rarely opens its wings for long, and it is difficult to photograph it basking in the sun.
To our amazement, not one but two different oakleaf butterflies were seen with their wings completely open, permitting us to take some marvellous photographs. We ogled the beautiful creatures and clicked away with our cameras.Bala, even had the time to take a video of a butterfly in that pose!
The oakleaf butterfly has some habits that make it easy to attract. It likes to feed on rotting fruit, and rope soaked with wine or beer is equally likely to attract it!
The garbage pit in our garden frequently attracts these large butterflies and I love to watch them open their beautiful wings, if only for the briefest of moments!
(Feedback and queries are welcome at sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com)
Go green
October 24 is celebrated as the International Day of Climate Action by many organisations. Why don’t you organise something in your school as your contribution to climate action?