I realize that Namdapha must be a sort of butterly heaven during the season…because I went out of season, I wasn’t even looking for any, and yet I just could not resist clicking some of the common ones!

Let’s just start with the beautiful HIMALAYAN JESTER:

the COMMON RING: the COMMON TIT: the FLUFFY TIT: an "open" PUFFIN: the same butterfly, with its wings closed: I learnt why the COMMON CASTOR was called so, after seeing them in their hundreds amongst the castor plants (from which castor oil is made)! the INDIAN RED ADMIRAL: the METALLIC CERULEAN (this one really did have a lovely blue metallic sheen as it flew about, so naturally I could not get a single shot of it with its wings open. Show me a photographer trying to catch a flitting butterfly with a camera, and I will show you a frustrated person.) the LIME EMIGRANT: the PURPLE SAPPHIRE (what a lovely and tough name!) this is another of the Sapphires: this was one of the "easy" (that is, seen earlier, often enough to be remembered!) ones...the WHITE ORANGE-TIP: I cannot understand why so many butterflies, such light and delicate creatures that live on sunshine and flowers and in utter peace, should be named after ranks in the armed forces. HOW can associate these creatures of light and air with war? But so it it is. Here is the SERGEANT: thank goodness, this one is named after PUNCHINELLO, one of the characters of the Harlequin opera: sometimes we get back to the flowers, as with this GREY PANSY: and sometimes the description is so true...this is the COMMON WANDERER: but whoever called this one a PEACOCK PANSY has never seen a peacock, even though the "eyes" may have brought the bird to mind: it was amazing how, as I walked, the butterflies folded themselves and just became leaves! Here's that self-same Peacock Pansy, with its wings closed...isn't it a dry, sere leaf? some more flights of fancy inspired some butterflies being called Tigers, as with this CHESTNUT TIGER: I could not find the id of this one: here's the COMMON HEDGE BLUE: back to the bird names...and where there is any chocolate in the CHOCOLATE ALBATROSS, I don't know! this one's a COMMANDER... My guide, Bidyut, said this one might be an ORANGE-AND-BLACK ROYAL but Karthik says it's more likely to be a RED FLASH: Here it is with the orange colour not showing: Here's Bidyut picking up the wing of an unfortunate butterfly, which has probably become some bird's lunch: This is the GRASS JEWEL, which Bidyut told me was the smallest butterfly in the world! Some of the MOTHS were lovely too; here's some variety of SCOPULA MOTH (thanks for the id, Kiran!) : and a HAWK MOTH: here's a moth case, after the pupa has matured and flown out: We were looking at a dead Moth on the path, when Bidyut, our guide, cracked a great bilingual pun. "Look," he cried, " 'mauth' (death in Hindi) has truly come to this Moth!" and a few un-id DRAGONFLIES:

I end with the WHITE STRIPED BARON:

I am not sure of many of the id’s and would appreciate any help or corrections, please!

I have also decided that instead of hunting high and low for id’s, I am just going to call these butterflies “Krishnamurthy”, “Subramaniam”, “Vahini” and so on!

I can only imagine what it must be like during the butterfly season in this remote corner of India!