The Garden Inspector (or Garden Commodore.) At the top, a Wet Season Form, incidentally feeding on a Ruellia flower. This WSF is less commonly seen than the DSF and is very shy.
Below is the Dry Season Form, so different from the previous that it could be mistaken for another species. It is far more commonly seen, and far more confiding than the previous form. Not infrequently during the winter months, they would settle inside the house and almost become a household pet. The ivy on our front wall was a favourite resting place, and I remember following one individual over a period of almost three months.
The butterfly was first decribed as Papilio archesia Cramer, 1779.
Food plants include Plectranthus spp. I have seen this butterfly oviposit on P. neochilus. At bottom is a picture of P. fruticosus that self-seeded itself throughout our garden to produce a wonderful show of flowers during the Autumn months.
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