breathing space: nymphs, lycans and ruby red flowers

Friday, June 7

nymphs, lycans and ruby red flowers

the leeas are starting to bloom!

while in subic a few weeks back, the familiar ruby red blooms of the leeas were starting to dot the landscape. the flowers are pretty in themselves, but i always pay special attention to them because they seem to attract their fair share of butterflies plus other insects!

even if most of the flowers were still buds, they were already a beacon to many butterflies, including one of my favorite lycaenids: the club silverline.

in fact most of the butterflies i saw feeding were an assortment of lycaenids, I saw at least 4 kinds.

there was also a single nymphalid, a type of crow, fluttering around one of the inflorescences quite skittish compared to the lycaenids which seemed intent on savoring the nectar.

it was not only butterflies attracted to the leea flowers, there were flies, hornets and strange beetle-like insects (any ideas on what kind they are?)

meanwhile, other members of the nymphalid family, most probably of the mycalesis genus (bushbrowns), seemed to be immune to the call of the leea blooms. i saw at least 3 kinds lurking in the shaded parts of the vegetation.

another pair of lycaenids were neither on the leea blooms nor any vegetation. they were on the ground, preoccupied with procreation! let the butterfly-watching season begin!