Hi all
Fran de Jager knows some of the people at Nibela Lodge, the sister establishment to Sobhengu where Justin Bode has been amazing us all with records of White Mimic
Ornipholidotos peucetia penningtoni, etc. She kindly arranged for Jenny Norman and me to go up with her and her husband Johan, for whom this was his first butterfly trip. We went up on the 8th and 9th of May, leaving at sparrowfart on Saturday - something I haven't done for years!
Johan with weapon
We had dodgy weather on Saturday - but we still got lots of good records. Fran was looking for her lifer - Gold-banded Forester
Euphaedra neophron, but it was conspicuous by its absence. In fact we saw few of the Zululand 'megaticks'. The Deinbollias were few and far between, and those we found had min butterflies on. We did find this little
Anthene - not sure which, it could be
contrastata mashuna (Mashuna Hairtail), Otacilia or Talbot's.
We did find Streaked Sailor
Neptis goochi, which made Fran very happy but frustrated Jenny because it would NOT settle for a piccie.
There were some very nice Pierids about, like this female Bushveld Purple Tip
Colotis ione f
ione:
And this female Large Vagrant
Nepheronia argia variegata:
Pity about the grass stem...
The underside was great - here are two shots, with and without flash. Not sure which I like best...
There were also plenty of Swallowtails around - including this female Constantine's Swallowtail
Papilio constantinus:
Most of the action was not far from the Lodge, on the way to Sobhengu. The deep forest didn't do much - it was quite cool and cloudy.
We spent some time outside the Lodge reserve, in bush along the road that is slowly but surely being eaten away by slash 'n' burn farming. It looks a bit like the area outside Tembe further north, but apart from the odd
N.goochi nothing of note turned up. I made a diversion by leaving the keys in the Subaru (Johan was inside) and the electrics on. Came back - no power, battery she was dead! And no cellphone signal. Steeling myself for an unplanned walk, we first tried bump starting Zaddachi. No dice until Johan got out and we all pushed her out of the sand. We did manage to start her, just to find we were only 300m from Nibela Gate... and Jen hadn't taken any pix to embarrass me (I think...)
The camp itself is a lovely place in the middle of a forest - all creepy with spanish moss and ferns (pix by Fran and Johan):
That walkway was interesting late at night after a lot of gin 'n' tonic!
Sunday was hot and sunny after a misty start (poor Johan had been hoping for a sunrise shot over the water...) and off we went into the deepest part of the forest. This was a bit of a disappointment. We did find some
Hypolycaena that could have been
lochmophila (Coastal Hairstreak) but were most likely Purple-brown (
H.philippus):
Johan (perhaps wisely) stayed around camp. The rest of us trudged along the Sobhengu Forest Trail through the coastal bush for what seemed like hours with little reward. Eventually we turned back to the car, and on the way back a little whitish
Anthene settled next to me. The unusual underside pattern was just registering on my brain when she flipped her wings open. Unmistakable! As I shouted 'Liodes' and grabbed the Nikon, she took off. Jenny and Fran only got a glimpse of what for me was the butterfly of the weekend -
Anthene liodes, and I suspect the furthest south it's ever been seen. Unfortunately I seem doomed not to get a digital of this butterfly - it's too fly!
I suggested we take a walk along the road back to Nibela rather than driving. As we did this I saw a familiar flying saucer-like flight along the road -
neophron at last, and a lifer for a very happy Fran. But it didn't hang around for a photo... and we saw no more.
We went back to Nibela for lunch and to pick up Johan, who also hadn't seen any megaticks.
We went and emptied the traps (just the usual boring coastal Charaxes drunkards - Brutus, Green Veined, Pearl, Satyr, Club-tailed and Blue Spotted). I did my party trick of spinning the trap to eject its inhabitants - which included some nasty looking wasps.
The final shot of the trip was this little Green Marbled Sandman
Gomalia elma. True to form it was very hard to get the shot.
This was taken just as Jenny and Fran were failing yet again to photograph an
N.goochi. Ah well - I have my bogey butterflies (Liodes!) and it's only fair that they should have theirs!
Cheers
Steve
