On my recent trip to Brazil I became just a teeny weeny bit obsessed with butterflies and moths. For much of the trip, birding took a back seat and I spent many hours photographing the large numbers of butterflies found around the wetland. However, putting a name to them was far from easy. In fact, being almost a complete novice, just assigning them to family was problematic.
There is currently no comprehensive field guides to either butterflies or moths of the Atlantic Forest region in Brazil. But the excellent natural history library at REGUA's Guapi Assu Bird Lodge has two books that helped me identify some of the butterflies -
Misiones Butterflies (Díaz et al., 2007) that illustrates a few common species of north-east Argentina, and
Butterflies of Southern Amazonia (Garwood et al., 2009).
These are of the Nymphalidae family (Brush-footed/Four-footed butterflies).
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| Orsis Bluewing Myscelia orsis, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| Abia Sister Adelpha abia, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| Scarlet Peacock Anartia amathea roeselia, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| White Peacock Anartia jatrophae, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| Blue Cracker Hamadryas arete, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| Juno Longwing Dione juno, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| Tropical Buckeye Junonia evarete, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| Cramer's Eighty-eight Diaethria clymena janeira, REGUA, June 2012 |
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| Stinky Leafwing Historis odius odius, REGUA, June 2012 |
Over the last few years, Alexandre Soares and Nilton Tangerini of the Department of Entomology, National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and Jorge Bizarro, REGUA's Research Co-ordinator, have been carrying out fieldwork on the Lepidoptera at REGUA (published in 2011). 287 species of butterflies have been recorded so far with a large photo library built up, and two years worth of flight period data collected. As a result we've decided to produce a Checklist of the Butterflies of REGUA, similar to the recently published
Checklist of the Birds of REGUA, but with the addition of a photographic field guide to the 50 most common butterfly species.
More butterfly photos to follow, once I've identified them. I'd like to promise a bird post soon, but I live in Surrey and it's early August so it don't, look, good.
Congratulations, Lee, your photos are very beautiful!
ReplyDeleteOne day, I will take butterflies photos as you!
Alex
(LepidopteroFilo Blog), building butterfly watch in Brazil.
Oi Alex, Many thanks, that's very high praise indeed! I'll let you know when the REGUA butterfly checklist is finished. Lee
DeleteWhen are we going?
ReplyDeleteWe're thinking of going in Feb next year, when Kim Garwood, one of the authors of Butterflies of Southern Amazonia, will be at REGUA. Maybe also take in the Rio carnival (9-12th) as well? Not a great time for birds though.
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