#common birdwing

Put the sound on! Here’s a really cool behavior that some species are able to do: squeaking. 

Rare butterflies spotted across India

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Butterfly season has begun, and there is excitement among naturalists this year, as a wave of rare sightings surface along peninsular India

Recently, the Branded Royal, rarely seen in India, made news when it fluttered through the Nilgiris after a gap of over 130 years.

“It was last recorded in 1888 by British entomologist GF Hampson,” says Vinod Sriramulu. A trustee of the Wynter-Blyth…

Butterflies with black wings

Black. We all know what it is. The absence of light; the opposite of white. But are there gradations of black? Are some blacks blacker than others? The answer is most assuredly yes, and scientists have recently developed super black products with incredibly efficient light absorbing properties. For example, Vantablack– a material developed by Surrey NanoSystem in the UK – can absorb up to 99.96%…

Yellow peril! Aposematic colouration in Troides butterflies

Common birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) male, nectaring on Lantana, Thailand

I was very pleased to come across this butterfly, the common birdwing, recently. Although it is fairly common, I had not had a chance to try and photograph it before. There are at least 25 subspecies of Troides helena, but because of the location, in northern Thailand, this is almost certainly, Troides helena cerberus(…