Moltena fiara

The Strelitzia Night-fighter or Banana-tree Night-fighter. Despite having number of self sown Strelitzia nicolai (its only food plant) in our garden. I have only two records of this Hesperid. This is possibly because as its name implies, it is crepuscular, active mainly at dusk. (this one had come into our house (Steve Woodhall mentions attracted to lights.) The only other record was outside our house on a cold day (again my source says that they are only seen during the day on cold days.)
Lovely red eyes and white face and antennae.
It is monotypic.

I found this egg on a strelitzia leaf, and wondered if it belonged to this species

Hypolimnas anthedon

Despite an abundance of nettles in our garden (and Laportia in the KZN_NBG), I have only four records of the Variable Diadem, and all of them in our garden.
The top two photograhs are of an individual newly emerged and blown out of a tree one evening together with two others, still unfurling. As the common name implies there are two forms. The top make rather a mouthful: Hypolimnas anthedon wahlbergi f. wahlbergi. It is a Batesian mimic of Amauris niavius.
The bottom two individuals are form mima, a mimic of Amauris albimaculata.
Both these forms have a blue and/ or pink sheen which is characteristic, as it is with H. misisippus, both male and female.

Crudaria leroma

One of our three Greys, the Silver-spotted Grey. Despite being quite widespread, this is my only photograph. It was a battered old warrior missing most of its right fore-wing. It was sitting rather unsteadily on an acacia, one of its foodplants.

Rhanidophora sp.

We found this Dice Moth in Mandy's cottage. I realised that I had a photo of the larva. I took it home to photograph and overnight it laid a batch o eggs. (Yes, the first photo is a composite and was fudged. )

I think that the remarkable appendages of the larva are designed to mimic wasp eggs, saying I am already parasitised and not worth adding any more. I also suspect that they would present problems to the wasp's landing gear.

At bottom is the food-plant,  Thunbergia alata, the Black-eyed Susan, self-sown in our garden and common at the side of the road in Hilton.

Having taken my photograph, I released the moth to find another Thunbergia on which to lay eggs.

       

Acraea: the taxonomy

I had promised I would post a note on the systematics of the Acraeas. It seems the entire tribe is being constantly revised: see excellent article in wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acraea_(genus) which sums up the present state of the taxonomy: Acraea being a rubbish bin taxon. I notice Markku Savela's site remains a lumper, including all into the Acraeas, The VM  has taken the splitting route of reassigning nearly all of the Hyalites to the Telchinia.

The following is from Wikipedia:-

"With increasing availability of DNA sequence data, it is confirmed that Acraea as loosely defined does not constitute a monophyletic group. Even before the attempts to split up Acraea in earnest had begun, Jacob Hübner in 1819 suggested to separate species around Acraea serena asTelchinia. This name has been applied to a generally African group whose members usually feed on Urticaceae, and they had already been noted to bear some uncanny resemblances to theAmerican Actinote in anatomical details. Indeed, they seem to be closer relatives of these than of the other butterflies placed in Acraea, which usually feed on Passifloraceae and are at least in part quite close relatives of the African genus Bematistes. Those closest to that genus might warrant separation as Rubraea or Stephenia.[3]"
        

Colotis ione

Although common in the Ashburton area, this sp. is surpringly uncommon both at Bisley (I have 3 records) and Cumberland (my single record).
At top a fresh male; having had his underside photographed, he flew off and showed off his almost metalic sheen of the purple while warming up in the early morning sun, but he left before I could photograph this.
Next the upper side of an older male from the Mkondeni/ Mpuhsini area. The silvery scaling at the fore-wing tips is typical of the sp. He is an older specimen, and has lost most of his sheen
The bottom two photographs are of a female from Cumberland.
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Papilio nireus

The Green Banded Swallowtail (perhaps cyan banded)l was quite common in our garden with its citrus trees. These are males, the cyan band more saturated, and a yellow band on the underside hind-wing, which has a lovely chocolate sheen. I have had no success in finding the larva, and always found it difficult to photograph the upperside, this one on a cool winter day blown in the breeze.