September 2022

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!

Posted on February 20, 2023 04:33 AM by swanand