Spring is the beginning of butterfly season here in the Western Cape. There are however a few species that fly a little earlier – especially if the weather warms up. With a hot weekend predicted recently, Andrew & I headed to Het Kreis in pursuit of a few specials. we also wanted to cover some empty pentads for the South African Butterfly Conservation Assessment.
The surveyed locality:
We were in particularly in pursuit of a subspecies of the quite spectacular King Copper – Tylopedia sardonyx peringueyi:
The most abundant butterfly around was the Boland Brown Melampias huebneri:
We also saw a few specimens of the fast-moving Warrior Silver-spotted Copper Argyraspodes argyraspis:
As well as specimens of the Common Blue Leptotes pirithous:
We also found numerous specimens of a caterpillar that I later identified as belonging to a very attractive moth, the Cherry Spot Moth Diaphone eumela:
In our initial location, unphotographed sightings included the Painted Lady Vanessa cardui, and the Donkey Daisy Copper Chrysoritis zonarius.
A second flatter sandier spot produced a specimen of the Pan Copper Chrysoritis pan.
There were a lot of wildflowers in bloom also:
Babiana sp.
Lessertia sp.
Tritonia undulata.
All in all, a very good start to the butterflying year.
