The Crimson Rose Butterflies, Devarayanadurga

April 5, 2008

I spent a wonderful day with fellow naturalists– from the NTP, namely and , and Kiran Immidi (a friend of 's),Arun, and Sheshadri, who is really knowledgeable about birds and mammals, and was fantastic at id-ing tracks...he id'd leopard, boar, peacock,civet, and hare tracks for us..... and in the Devarayanadurga State Forest area, in Tumkur.

A detailed post will follow when this four-letter word foul internet connection allows me to post my pics (I got some nice ones!) to Flickr, but these I was able to upload, and I couldn’t wait to post them.

We saw two CRIMSON ROSE butterflies mating….

sixty-nine...crimson rose bfly mating devarayanadurga 050408

Then, as they mated, they flew into the air, and the butterfly on …er..the top did all the flying; then they landed on another plant not far from us, and we rushed to get that….

crimson rose b'fly mating devarayanadurga 050408

Later, we also saw dragonflies doing the same thing, but I couldn’t get photographs.

There are, however, pics of leopard pugmarks along with a peacock’s, various raptors, wild jasmine, the scent of which was a heady accompaniment to us the entire day, and lots and lots more….