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| Small Cupid, Chilades parrhasius |
A couple of days ago I took a short cut behind my villa and noticed a small fluttering grey-blue creature which I thought was a moth. I followed it and to my surprise found that it was a Blue Butterfly. Over the next two days I have seen three of them together so it seems there is a breeding population here. The butterfly has exquisite markings on its underwing. I have caught glimpses of dark blue and grey on its upper wings. The largest one was 1.5-2 cms.
My Maldivean Blue now has a proper name: Small Cupid (Chilades parrhasius). It is found in Eastern Arabia, South & Central India, Sri Lanka, Assam, and now The Maldives. In Central India it frequents dry deciduous forests, scrub and savannah.
references:
http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/India%20-%20Chilades%20parrhasius.htm
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kunte/Cupids.htm
http://srilankawilderness.blogspot.com/2010/07/small-cupid-butterflychilades.html
http://www.idosi.org/wjz/wjz4%283%292009/1.pdf
My Maldivean Blue now has a proper name: Small Cupid (Chilades parrhasius). It is found in Eastern Arabia, South & Central India, Sri Lanka, Assam, and now The Maldives. In Central India it frequents dry deciduous forests, scrub and savannah.
references:
http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/India%20-%20Chilades%20parrhasius.htm
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kunte/Cupids.htm
http://srilankawilderness.blogspot.com/2010/07/small-cupid-butterflychilades.html
http://www.idosi.org/wjz/wjz4%283%292009/1.pdf
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| habitat of the Small Cupid |
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| Small Cupid, Chilades parrhasius |
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| Small Cupid, Chilades parrhasius |
Thulaghiri North. This was a very enjoyable drift dive with plenty of marine life. There were two highlights for me – two long-nosed hawkfish and a huge moray eel with a Banded Shrimp which jumped onto the eels nose to clean it of parasites.
Coral Gardens. As soon as we dropped in an Eagle Ray appeared and I was able to swim two meters above it for some time before it accelerated and disappeared. I could not record it as my camera stopped working after the previous dive – cause unknown.
Sunset was enjoyable at the Sunset Bar. A couple of Tiger beers there and another at hapy hour in the Sand Bar made for a pleasant dinner…
Another fantastic array of photos. Bringing it all back, I remember most of the dive sites you mention, the little upturned boat on the night dive, the spectacular coral wall at banana reef, the black tips, the manta rays at Lancan reef .....Some of those Moray eels are clearly old friends of yours, surprised you haven't given them names!Give my best wishes to Abdulla. Adel and Bill - maybe next year....
ReplyDeleteKeith
I`m a sucker for the sunset shots - what an end to a great dive !
ReplyDeletePhilip