Mahale truly is a haven for a stunning array of Butterflies. You will seldom walk anywhere without seeing one of the many beauties fluttering by.
Here are just a few that I have managed to snap in the past week...getting them in flight is the new challenge as well as identification.
Are these two beauties the same species or not...they look very similar but have slight marking differences.
A tiny butterfly you cannot miss, it has quite a fascinating make-up...Hypolycaena antifaunus try saying that doubly fast.
The beach is a great place it seems for butterflies, they must get some salts from the edge of the lake.
This is the Veined Swordtail,
Or is this a Veined Swordtail...different fazes and they could well both be Veined Swordtail's.
.jpg)
This little one is a Grass Yellow...is it a Regular, Angeled or Common...the forewing (top wing) has only black if you look close enough, this tells us that it is most likely a Common Grass Yellow.
Here we have the Variable Eggfly...not such a pretty name for a pretty butterfly.
This is a common visitor to us at Greystoke...it is of the Acraea family, a very big family of butterflies, this one in particular is the Elegant Acraea.
Take off...the electric blues of the Green-banded Swallowtail make you second guess their names.
A beach gathering...at times you will find big congregations of butterflies right at the lake edge, a few days ago it was the turn for these African Leopard Fritillaries.
Just hope Big Bird does not take any notice of you when you are watching butterflies as he is quite fond of the odd butterfly snack.