Butterflies @ Doi Inthanon

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On 20 March, we were honoured to have two experts Les and Inayoshi-san joined us in our  "butterfly-hunting" trip to Doi Inthanon. After a long drive, our first stop is the waterfall at the Siribhum Royal Garden.

A high leafy perch of this Black Forester (Lethe vindhya vindhya) was an cooperative model for most of us. 

This tiny Forest Quaker (Pithecops corvus corvus) was alert and it didn't give me a second chance for another shot. 

A Hill Jezebel (Delias belladonna hedybia) was puddling on a foot path leading to the waterfall.

This Arhopala looks like the A. bazalus which was puddling on a sandy ground next to the Hill Jezebel.

A solitary Sapphire looks like the Helioiphorus ila nolus was changing perches a few times before settling on a fern.

At noon, we went further up the hill. Inayoshi-san pointed out to us that this was the Variable Sailor (Neptis zaida inayoshi). It was skittish at first but it got used to our persistent chasing after a while.

One of the highlights of the day was the sighting of this nice butterfly - a female French Duke (Euthalia franciae raja). She was quite obliging when we approached her closer to snap some shots of her beauty. 

The undersides were quite beautiful under certain lighting condition - but I wasn't presented with such opportunities. 

We finally reached a resort site where we spent the rest of the afternoon looking for butterflies. Thanks to Sunny who alerted me about this magnificent  female Grand Duchess (Euthalia patala taooana) which came down to puddle on the ground.

While waiting for this Duchess to appear again, I wandered around the vicinity and managed to get some shots of the undersides of a rather skittish Variable Sailor.

The Duchess in fact came back to the same place quite frequently and all of us managed to get some shots.

Before we called it a day, a Yellow Jazebel (Delias agostina agostina) attracted our attention when it stayed on the wet ground for sometime.

To be continued.