Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Suzanne’s month in Ghana – moths and butterflies

I couldn’t begin to count the amount of time I spent waiting for the butterflies in Ghana to land and be nice to me but they just wouldn’t. They were everywhere but these are the only ones I managed to get… Once again, apologies for the quality, the Lumix does what I need but not much else!

P1000840_edit_blog P1000860_edit_blog P1000864_edit_blog P1000945_edit_blog P1000979_edit_blog P1010093_edit_blog P1010530_edit_blog P1010538_edit_blog P1010539_edit_blog P1010541_edit_blog P1010570_edit_blog P1010576_edit_blog I was actually really excited to see two pairs of butterflies breeding as I’ve never seen it before. I have to say it does seem to take a remarkably long time to do the deed though. I felt like a bit of a gooseberry after a while!

 

Next are my moths. As you’ll see, most of them were taken in the same location, which was the toilets of the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. I saw significantly more moths than monkeys and I’m rather ashamed to admit that one of the girls actually had to throw me out of the toilet once she realised the error she had made in inviting me into her cubical to take some photos. They were beautiful though…P1010585_edit_blog P1010588_edit_blogP1000918_edit_blog P1000919_edit_blog P1000921_edit_blog P1000925_edit_blog P1000928_edit_blog P1000929_edit_blog P1000930_edit_blog  P1000981_edit_blog P1010133_edit_blog P1010154_edit_blog P1010155_edit_blog

3 comments:

Jonathan Lethbridge said...

Some of these are amazing, do you know what any of them are? I've seen pictures of moth-trapping in the Tropics and it is insane. You get about 15kg of insect life in about five minutes.

Suzanne Bradnum said...

No idea Jono, was hoping you'd be interested enough to find out for me!!!

Tim Randall said...

I'm no expert Suzanne but I may be able to point you in the right direction for some of them.

1 is a citrus swallowtail butterfly similar to this -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timrandall44/3984884798/in/set-72157622398312211/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timrandall44/3984122921/in/set-72157622398312211/

3 is, I think a species of Charaxes butterfly but there so many, I can't help any further

6 is a female common diadem butterfly (it mimics an African monarch)

8 & 9 are, I think, of an African monarch butterfly

13 & 14 are of a skipper butterfly but I don't know which

15 is, I think, an owl moth but I can't pin it down any closer

Tim Randall