Big Butterfly Month 2024

Thanks to Dr. Surya Prakash and my friend Dr. Preetika Garg I am excited to be a part of Butterfly Count this year. My friend Preetika and I went to Noida Biodiversity Park to explore the beautiful world of butterflies.

Here's what I observed in the field:

The Great Eggfly on Lantana camara

On the left, is a male great eggfly, which will gladly land on human foreheads in order to collect the sodium present in human sweat that it cannot usually get from nectar.

These minerals are important for the males as it is important for their reproductive prowess and metabolism.

See Source

The Spittlebug

Something I didn't even know existed and was pointed out by my friend, Preetika, was this interesting Spittlebug.

Spittle is produced when spittlebug nymphs secrete plant juices according to an article published by the BBC.

The spittle house serves functions such as:

• hiding the nymph from sight

• protecting the nymph from attacking predators, as the froth is said to have an acrid taste

• maintaining optimum temperature and moisture conditions for the nymph's growth

  see source

The Potter Wasp

Another first time sight for me was this comaratively huge Potter wasp. Scientifically, known as Delta pyriforme. It lives in many parts of Asia.

Male wasps have a yellow face that stands out against their brown body.

The female builds nest the resemble the shape of an earthen pot. see source

The Peacock Pansy

The peacock pansy butterfly is a real beauty! It has amazing spots on its wings that look like eyes, and cool purple patterns too. These eye spots serve a fascinating purpose—they help scare away potential predators by mimicking the eyes of larger animals. You can find these butterflies all over Southeast Asia. They love basking in the sunshine and flitting around close to the ground in open spaces.

see source

The Swift Spicies

This little butterfly doesn't usually sit with open wings. It is quite active in flying about and can be very difficult to identify unless you have some experience with these or an expert guiding you.

Signature Spider

Like other species of the same genus, it is known as a "signature spider"; it builds a web with a zig-zag stabilimentum somewhat resembling letters. People have many ideas about why she does this. Some think it makes the web stronger, helps her hide, or catches more insects because the cross reflects light that insects like. It might also scare away animals that want to eat the spider, because they have to clean off the extra silk after getting caught in the web.

We also saw the common silverline, common emigrants, lime swallowtail, stripped tiger, plain tiger and common banded owl butterflies and all in all it was a day well spent with a lot of learning.

And...who's this?

Here's a picture of a cute little bug that I don't have an identifcation for yet. If you do, please let me know in the comments.