Papilio Demodocus - detail

A group of three or four of these Citrus Swallowtails would settle together for the night in the KZN_NBG, and always seemed too sleepy to bother about my close approach. This is of a male: in the top photograph, the lunule on the upper side hind-wing next to the costa is entirely yellow (c.f. female).

Bicyclus safitza

The Common Bush Brown, and one of the most common butterflies in our garden.

For a short period it was revised to Bicyclus denina denina (Godart, 1824) [Lamas, 2010]but now back to its time honoured name.

It could be found in our garden for most of the year. In the wsf., the underside ocelli are large and bold, in the winter form they are insignificant. Sean Carroll gives an excellent description of the epigenetics of the spots of B. anynana (a close cousin of this butterfly) in the chapter How the Butterfly got its Spots in his book Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Well worth the read.

The female is a lighter beige as compared with the male's darker colour.

To me the most remarkable picture is at bottom. Despite being so common this is the only time that I have seen this butterfly with its wings spread (c.f. Henotesia perspicua which does this often). This male settled on the hearth in our house one evening and dispayed all his sexuality: The scent glands on the fore-wings, and the hair pencil emerging from the base of the hind wing: spraying pheremones far and wide. For more on this see The use of chemical and visual cues in female choice in the butterfly Bicyclus anynana by Katie Costanzo and Antónia Monteiro.

Hypolimnas misippus: females

The Common Diadem: females. What remarkable examples of Batesian mimicry of the model African Monarch.
It was a hot summer mid-day in the KZN-NBG when I found these females on a patch of weeds. Tommy, my German Shepherd, sensible dog, waited patiently in the shade while I did the photography. So much for mad dogs and Englishmen.
At the top are of two mimics of two different forms of the African Monarch.
At bottom the underside of the second specimen ovipositing on purslane (Portulaca oleracea.)
The blue sheen that is caught under certain lightings is characteristic of the spp.as is also seen in my earlier posting of Hypoplimnas misippus males.
 

Actizera lucida

The Rayed Blue: a small butterfly that could be overlooked as similar to those I had mentioned in the Three "Z's" post. The white  stripe on the underside, however, is unmistakable.
Both these specimens from Bisley; at top an exuberant form in summer, below a tiny specimen in an early dry winter. Compare the size of the bottom specimen with the flower (?Dicleptera)
 

Anthene amarah

The Black-striped Hairtail, readily recognised, as its name implies by the black streak emerging from the base of  fore-wing underside. The female (second from top) upperside is brown with more marked ocelli and lunules than the male. Compare this with the male's greyish background with his bronze sheen.
It can be found quite frequently in acacia savannah, its food plant being Acacia sp. including A. karroo.
All of the above specimens were from Bisley NR where it appears to be particularly well populated.
 

Anthene Millari

I was about to discard this record as an indifferent photo of an elderly Anthene I had found at Cumberland. On looking a little closer it seemed to be closest to Millar's Hairtail. If so it is my one and only record. It has a reputation for bring elusive.
 

Cacyreus marshalli

The Geranium Bronze. As compared with our previous home where this butterfly was a rarity, in Golden Pond it is common: cultivated Pelargoniums are frequent in gardens here.

The top two photographs are of the same female ovipositing on one of my Perargoniums. The egg was too small to photograph, My plants are devastated and I have stopped growing the plant! Steve Woodhall remarks that this butterfly probably originated in the SW of the RSA, but has spread as far as Europe and even the UK due to the cultivation of Pelargoniums.
Despite what is written, it would appear that this butterfly is allowed a minimal amount of basal blue sheen (cf C. tespis which is now C. fractus.)
[On my todo: C. lingeus and C. virilis.]