A New Season of Butterflies...featuring 'underside', 'topside' and on the 'small side'!

It’s the time of year when the daytime is glorious, with clear blue skies, gentle warm sun, (and away from the blanket of dust hanging over the city) …. and lots of butterflies!

One day this past week, I sat out at the table and chairs on our grass and counted at least 13 different species of butterflies flying by within about half an hour. 

But in amongst these was a NEW butterfly for me….a really tiny one (about 18mm wingspan) called the:

 Gaika Blue

Sorry I didn’t get an ‘inside-wing’ photograph, as it never seems to open its wings when its still, so you only see the full beautiful blue on the inside when its flying. 

But I did get one photo of its wings just the tiniest bit apart so you can see that I speak the truth when I say the inside is a pretty blue!

And to give you both the full proof and a size comparison to show just how small this butterfly is, here is a snapshot of a page in my butterfly book that shows it next to the swallowtail.

To put the size into further perspective, this is the swallowtail  (about 100mm wingspan) at a bougainvillea flower and a ‘busy lizzy’ flower in our garden a while back:

As I’ve mentioned before sometimes butterflies can be a very boring plain colour on the underside (what you see when wings are closed) and very beautiful on the topside (what you see when the wings are open), just like this Yellow Pansy:

But this one, called the ‘Painted Lady’ is quite ornate on both sides. I have seen this one before, but only in a ‘broken’ and battered state, this time I got to see it with full wings!

(and for size referencing, the Painted Lady and Yellow Pansy are about the same 'mid-size’ (about 45-50mm wingspan) as the Neita Brown in the comparison picture above)

So you see a garden adventure in butterfly watching is always an adventure because you never know what that day of viewing will bring!  

But one thing it always brings, is fresh awe and wonder at the amazing creation…and thus an amazing Creator…and thus what a privilege we have to be his children!  If he cares so much as to how to make butterflies of multitudes of colours and sizes just for the joy of it, then how much more can we trust him to take care of us and to want the best for us according to his wisdom and design!