Visited a small nature reserve on the way to work this morning. It’s called Tsurugidake Nature Park and is located near Kurate. It was quite cloudy but there were plenty of butterflies. Here are five species I managed to photograph:
Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae
Hestina japonica = Gomadara-chou
(A bit tatty unfortunately)
Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae
Blue admiral = Kaniska canace = ruri tateha
(As you can see from the lower two pictures, when it closes its wings the butterfly seems to disappear!)
Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae
(I haven’t identified this one yet. It was feeding on bird droppings.)
Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae
Pale Grass Blue = Zizeeria maha = yamato shijimi
(This is one of the commonest butterflies in Japan)
Lepidoptera: Satyridae
Neope spp. = kimadara hikage
There are two species: Neope goschkevitschii & Neope niphonica.
These used to be regarded as the same species and are quite difficult to distinguish.
