Acraea petraea

The Blood-red Acraea.

We had a Xylotheca kraussiana (African Dog Rose) in our garden. It proved a great atraction for this butterfly, and an opportunity to follow its life cycle. In certain seasons, eggs would be laid in large numbers, in groups on the upper sides of the leaves. Most of these would hatch, the larvae ravaging the tree. Only a small proportion advanced to the pupa stage, and even fewer of these survived to an emerging butterfly.

Interestingly, nearly all the females were were the same blood red colour as the male. I have a single record of the brown form. The females can be told by the all black background colour of the abdomen and a white sub-apical band. The male lacks that band, and, like some other acraeas, has an orange posterior abdomen together with anal claspers.

    

Lampides boeticus

Apparantly the accepted common name now is the Pea Blue, being previously called the Lucerne or Long-tailed Blue.The genus established by Hubner (1819) is monotypic. The TS from Linne's Papilio boeticus. It is widespread, but doesn't occur in the New World.
The bottom picture is of an elderly matron ovipositing on a Polygala in our garden. Food plants are derived from the Fabales which include Fabaceae (previously Leguminaceae) as well Polygala.
    

Graphium leonidas

The Veined Swordtail - not all the spp. of the genus have a sword tail. On a hot summers day it could often be found mud-puddling in the drift at the Cumberland campsite. These are two different specimens, I think both are form brasidas.

There is an Azanus Natalensis in the background, joining in the puddling.

    

Celaenorrhinus mokeezi

The Christmas Forester: This one was sunning itself at the forest margin of Ferncliffe, and true to its name, at this time of the year can be found in fair numbers particularly in the Mgeni NR.

    

Neptis laeta

The Common Sailer, not all that common here but more so than N. Saclava, (the previous post.) Sometimes they are found perched territorially, but I have always found them to be shy.
ToL lists 144 spp. with a wide distribution, but none from the Americas. There are six in RSA, but this one and N. Sacalva being the most common.
 

Neptis saclava

The Spotted Sailer -I think Sailer being the preferred spelling, referring to the appearance in flight (rather than to a mariner.)  The submarginal spots and underside basal mottling are characteristic. It is not all that common here, certainly less so than N. Laeta, though having a similar distribution: a band stretching inward from the Natal coast, and up into the Eastern and Northern Transvaal (old geography.)

Afrodryas leda

Eronia leda is now Afrodryas leda. The genus from Stoneham 1957, TS is  itself, originally Dryas leda Boisduval 1847. Is it monotypic?
Eronia cleodora stet.