Congratulations @ruta45!Your observation of the Metallic Cerulean is the 'observation of the month for the Pune district for October 2022'. The metallic cerulean is a new addition to the iNat checklist. @ruta45, @ninadsr, and @mandarn observed it in the Tamhini region. It's good to have 3rd cerulean on the list now.
The trio explored the Tamhini forest this month multiple times. More exploration results in more information!One more butterfly addition to the iNat checklist by @mandarn and @ninad from the Tamhini only! It's the Three-spotted Grass Yellow .
They also observed a Restricted Demon butterfly, a rarely observed species in the Pune district. We can see the results of regular exploration and documentation of these observations.
As we continue talking about Tamhini, @pashu4you framed Red Helen Swallowtail nectoring on Fire Flame Bush. According to @bhagwatn sir, the plant attracts sunbirds with its rich nectar, but he couldn't see butterflies visiting the flower. So, this is a good sign that some butterflies also visit this wildflower.@bhagwatn shared his experience when we saw the plants in the butterfly garden of the KV school Dehu Road. Continue with KV Garden @bhagwatn observed a double-banded crow there, on Crotalaria October 2022. Another interesting crow observation is from the Bhor region. @santoshbhor saw a Common Crow Pupa on a water tap in his garden. Whereas Plain Puffins completed a life cycle in @priyadarshan_naturalist's garden this year as well! @sanjitkulkarni documented a Gaudy Baron on over-ripped bananas in Mahatma society. So Many special guests in the home gardens!
To talk about human guests, @chitrashanker, a well-known entomologist, had a visit to Pune. She observed a Small Salmon Arab in Pune. @chitrashanker, please have a walk with us next time you visit Pune :)
There was a total of 481 observations involving 101 species in October 2022. @bhagwatn is the lead observer with 72 butterfly observations, and @himanshupandav and @ruta45 are following him with 39 butterfly observations by both of them.
Happy Butterflying!

Congratulations @virenvaz! Your Sahyadri Common Orange Awlet observation is 'Butterfly observation of the month for Pune District' (September 2022). It is a new addition to the inaturalist checklist for the Pune district, https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/ has one record of the species from Junnar. The first time a person who is not a Pune resident has the observation of the month. @virenvaz is originally from Mumbai. He retired early and left Mumbai to travel around the villages of interior Maharashtra. He was on a trip to a farmhouse around Pawna. Early in the morning, he heard a Malabar whistling thrush in the bush close to the house. So, he stepped out in search of the bird. In moving around chasing that Malabar whistling thrush, he disturbed this butterfly. Initially, he thought it was a moth. But when the butterfly settled, he noticed the orange portion and got excited. The butterfly is a lifer for him as well!
We celebrate September as big butterfly month, most of our group members explore butterflies, and the butterfly activity is also good. Hence, we expect more observations and such surprises from the month. September 2022 is no different. There are 1334 observations involving 129 species from 50+ observers.

Are there any other new additions to the list? Yes! Indian Pierrot! Yet another Pierrot species added to the checklist from @mandarn and @ninadsr! The King Crow butterfly is also a recent addition and has also been observed this month at multiple locations. @bhagwatn sir documented it in KV School Garden, and @mandarn and @ninadsr saw it in Tamhini. Speaking about Tamhini, @himanshupandav observed a Common Rose Swallowtail butterfly in Tamhini; this is just the second observation on the iNaturalist of the species from Tamhini.

Remember the last 'observation of the month'? The Joker butterfly? and guess what, this month group members observed egg and caterpillar of the species! Similar to the last month, this month also has multiple mating pair observations such as Lemon Pansy, Blue Tiger, Mottled Emigrant, Dart , Swift , White Orange Tip , Small Grass Yellow, and a beautiful courtship observation of Danaid Eggfly. Many caterpillar observations too! Such as, @madhavijoshi clicked a beautiful frame of Indian Tailless Lineblue on Mimosa inflorescence, @abhilare documented interesting queue of Jazebel caterpillars. @pavandamoor observed Angled Pierrot, andCommon Leopard caterpillar in Tamhini; and Angled Castor in the grassland of Saswad region. Also, there are multiple Common Mormons, grass demons, Jays, Red Pierrots, Crows, Blue tigers, and Plain tiger caterpillars observations.
Speaking about Pupae, @itsamantis observed Pansy Pupa trying to match surrounding colors, @santoshbhor documented a Pupa of a Pioneer on a wall and multiple Pupae of Tailed Jay on the host plant in school's butterfly Garden.
The school students @sanchita13 and @aniket11 observed the Sahyadri Blue Oakleaf butterfly at the Bhor Bus Stand. @bhagwatn observed a beautiful congregation of blue tigers and crow butterflies in KV school. He also documented the puddling of the Small grass yellows having around eight yellows and three blue butterflies in one frame! @mandarn clicked the inaria form of Danaid Eggfly. I must mention the university butterfly walk. The participants uploaded many beautiful nectoring observations from Pune University.
The lead observer of this month is @himanshupandav, with 268 observations from different places, including 70+ species. He enjoyed big butterfly Month. @bhagwatn is not far behind with 252 observations. @pavandamoor and @santoshbhor have 150+ observation this Month.

Happy Butterflying!

Congratulations @itsamantis! Observation of the Joker butterfly within the city borders is the 'Butterfly Observation of the month for the Pune district'!
(Butterfly Observation of the Month: August 2022.).
Many group members appreciated this observation. It is an important observation considering that the Joker butterfly is a pure grassland butterfly. Hence, it is very rear in the city. @itsamantis observed it in the Hadpser region, noting that it is near the Saswad grassland. Previously, Jocker was documented on the inaturalist only once within the city limit at ARAI hills in 2015 (@pavandamoor 's observation). All other Joker observations are near Mayureshwer Sanctuary and the Saswad grassland region.
Discussing Grasslands, Bhigwan is another less-explored grassland for butterflies in the Pune district.@gaurikarlekar observed the unique courtship behavior of plain tiger butterflies in the Bhigawan grassland. It's interesting as the image shows around five males chasing a single female butterfly. The female is clearly showing rejection by pointing the abdomen upward. @gaurikarlekar also observed the mating pair of common leopards mobbed by other butterflies same species. @jayantdeshpande also observed the Agonistic mating behavior of the Red Pierrot butterfly in his terrace garden. @himanshupandav also observed the mating pair of the Red Pierrot butterfly in his garden. he also observed the mating pair of Tamil Grass Dart. @pashu4you observed the mating pair of ring butterfly. @mandarn observed the mating pair of Chestnut Bob. @suraj38 observed the mating pair of Common Gull in Pisaware village. @naturalist52570 observed courtship behavior of the African Babul Blue. So many courtships and mating Observations!
These results in life cycle observations as well! For example, multiple egglaying and caterpillar-observations of Red Pierrot butterflies. Egg laying of Tiger mimicking danaid Eggfly, Angled Pierrot, tawny coster, and so on...
Another interesting thing to note is that many observations of butterflies nectroring on the Justica plant.
To conclude, August is a starting season for Joker, and one can expect an increase in the life cycle and courtship observations. In August 2022, butterfly activity increased the number of observations(289) and species(88) compared to July 2022. Even the diverse area covered in the Month.

@pavandamoor is back on the leaderboard and is at the top with 70+ observations. @bhagwatn is in second place with 45 observations, and @itsamantis is in third place with 35 observations.

Happy Butterflying!

Congratulations @mandarn for observing the Black-spotted Pierrot and getting a decent open-wing photo of the same. There are only a few observations of this butterfly on the inaturalist. @ninadsr also observed the species on the same hill after a few days. However, @mandarn's image has a clear open wing.
Let's select this observation as the observation of the month for July 2022.
I Guess, Tarcus genus spotted Pierrot is difficult to identify and thus neglected by many butterfly enthusiasts. That can be the reason behind less observation of the species on the inaturalist platform. Let's take inspiration from @mandarn and @ninadsr and observe all butterflies without bias.
Remember the observation of the month for the last month was the Sunbeam beam caterpillar? The same specimen Pupa is observed and documented by @santoshbhor.
Another special mention is the Blue oak leaf butterfly. Narendra Sir documented a weathered Sahyadri Blue Oakleaf butterfly basking on the tar road.
In July month due to continuous rain, less activity of butterflies and butterfly enthusiasts resulted in very few observations for the month. Inaturalist has only 134 Observations involving 48 species from July 2022 from the Pune district.
The top observer is @bhagwatn, who has documented 71 observations from these 134. He observed butterflies mainly in the butterfly garden from the KV schools and Nigadi region; This shows his dedication towards the habitat he developed and documentation for continuous improvements. The Second on the list is @santoshbhor, with 13 observations.
Happ Butterflying!

Congratulations @dhananjay_kothawale, for the observation of the Sunbeam caterpillar in the school. It is the first time we are documenting the sunbeam life cycle observation on the inaturalist from the school premises in the Pune district. Also, one can see the classroom in the background, which makes it fun to see how near students can observe the life cycle of butterflies in the school.
Let's Choose this as an observation of the Month for June 2022.
There are multiple sunbeam caterpillar observations from the same premises this month, as other teachers and students also documented the same specimen. Indeed they also observed the pupae. It was the only one with a school and students going to a classroom in the background.
Was there any competition for butterfly observation of the month to this beauty? Indeed yes! Let's discuss them starting with the new addition to the inaturalist checklist. Tinsel! Yes, Tinsel is the new butterfly in the district. @ninadsr @mandarn observed it in the Tamhini region. It's great to see that, still new butterflies are getting added to the checklist and such rare beauties are present in our district.
Apart from Tinsel, there is no new addition this month. However, Tamhini continues to mesmerize us with butterflies. @ninadsr @mandarn also observed Chocolate Albatross on Lea in Tamhini. @pavandamoor observed the Orchid Tit again, this time nectoring on Lea. @jayantdeshpande and @himanshupandav documented four Angled Pierrot nectoring on a single bunch of lea flowers.
Not only the lea plant but also Hibiscus from Tamhini was attracting butterflies as we see the Redhelen and blue Mormon nectoring observations on Hibiscus. @jayantdeshpande and @himanshupandav observed Money Puzzle's courtship behavior. The pair faces each other and keeps circling each other. Six Tricolour Pied Flat out of nine observations are from this month.
What about ARAI if Tamhini is giving this result? @mandarn observed Crimson Tip mating pair at ARAI hill region. @gaurikarlekar observed the Spotswardtail in the Singhagad valley.@himanshupandav observed Dark Cerulean ovipositing on the orchid. @naturalist52570 observed 3 Bright Babul Blue on a single stick and used @savita's phone as a background for the observation.

Total of 282 covering 82 species with many special observations documented this June 2022. Lead observers are @himanshupandav, @mandarn, @jayantdeshpande, and @bhagwatn with 40+ observations each.

Happy butterflying!

Congratulations @ninadsr for the observation of the Blue-bordered Plane. I could not find any documentation of the Blue-bordered Plane from the Pune district on ifoundbutterflies and inaturalist.
Let's Choose this as an observation of the Month for May 2022.
Sorry for the delay of a couple of months in posting the 'observation of the month.'
It was an obvious choice and also got maximum votes. One can imagine the Joy of Ninad when he spots that beauty. Especially when he was aware that this was potentially the first record of the Blue-bordered Plane from the Pune district. Ninad explores the new places around Pune for butterflies and has documented 170+ species from the Pune district. The exploration is really fruitful to see such documentation.
Apart from Blue bordered plane, there is one more special observation, Yamfly from Tamhini by @bhagwatn and @swanand. The Tamhini never disappoints and continues to give mesmerizing sightings. Yamfly is documented after almost a decade.
Tamhini still has sightings of black prince Awl, back angle chestnut Angle, Golden Angle, narrow banded blue bottle, and so on.
In May 2022, there were only 250 observations of 75 species with one new addition to the checklist of the Pune district. The most observed butterfly is Pioneer. It was observed in Pisaware, Lohegaon, Nigadi, KV Dehu road, and Dhayari. Some of us also documented the egg laying of Pioneer.
@bhagwatn tops the list of observers as he documented at various places this month, @swanand is second with only one walk at Tamhini, and @pavandamoor is in the third position. Only 18 observers uploaded the observations of butterflies from the Pune district on inaturalist in May 2022.
Let's keep uploading our butterfly observations on citizen science platforms.
Happy Butterflying.

Congratulations Tushar( @tusharagarwal18 )! for observing Purple Leaf Blue. Let's choose this observation as the observation of the month for April 2022!

There were only two observations on iNaturalist before this observation.One is from Bhimashankar by @amol_pendharkar04 , and the other is from the Tamhini by @mayuresh_kulkarni . Both the butterfly observations are ten years old. Hence, this observation came after ten years is very special for butterflies of Pune.

There was good butterfly activity in April, but very few of us documented butterflies this month. Only 156 butterfly observations of 76 species from April 2022 are on the inaturalist for the Pune district. I request you all to please upload or document your observations on such platforms.

Let's check those 150 observations. There is no new addition to the checklist, but many amazing records. @mandarn captured four Common Mormons mudpuddling in Mulashi. It's a lovely photo. Also, his Red Helen nectoring observation is worth mentioning as we usually observe the species during mudpuddling, but nectoring behavior is not so common. Dr. @himanshupandav also observed this nectoring behavior of the Red helen.
@joshiadityar observed a Silver Streak blue in the Sahakar Nagar region . The Silverstreak blue is not socommon in the city. So, with this observation, one can now expect more observations of the species from The Sahakar Nagar or Taljai region. Dr.@himanshupandav Observed many species on a single scat in Tamhini.

The lead observer of the month is @bhagwatn with 50+observations, Dr. @himanshupandav is following him with 30+ observations, and @tusharagarwal18 and @mandarn added 13 observations each during April 2022.

Happy Butterflying