Female Plain Tiger

I had written long back on Plain tiger (Danaus chrysippus) butterfly. At that time I was using Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM with 36mm of extension tube to photograph this Plain Tiger butterfly. Soon after the Scarlet Skimmer dragonfly photograph session which I published last week, I spotted a female plain tiger butterfly nearby. I used the same setup as I used in the dragonfly photography. My rig consisted of 1D Mark IV camera with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L + 1.4x tele-converter stabilized on a monopod. Beautiful evening sun gave me plenty of golden light to experiment around this butterfly. It was not at all shy in posing for me as was evident in the photos which is one of the great advantages of using a long telephoto lens for closeup shoots.

Female Plain Tiger Under Side View

As I photographed I noticed that the butterfly had a wound on the thorax at the base of the right hind-wing. The Plain Tiger is protected from attacks due to the unpalatable alkaloids ingested during the larval stages. The larvae pf this butterfly feed on host plants like milkweeds (like Asclepias, Calotropis) which are have toxic alkaloids. The butterfly therefore flies slowly and leisurely, generally close to the ground and in a straight line. This gives a would-be predator ample time to recognize and avoid attacking it. Inexperienced predators will try attacking it, but will learn soon enough to avoid this butterfly as the alkaloids in its body cause vomiting. The butterfly I was photographing also must have escaped such an attack on it.

Female Plain Tiger Side View

It was an old wound, the lymph had accumulated and clotted around the right side of the thorax. Even though injured the butterfly was flying normally and was resting like any other of its kind. Tenacity of this butterfly was amazing. The butterfly also has a tough, leathery skin to survive such occasional attacks. When attacked it fakes death and oozes nauseating liquid which makes it smell and taste terrible. This encourages the predator to release the butterfly quickly. The Plain Tiger thus has the ability to recover “miraculously” from predator attacks that would kill most other butterflies.

Female Plain Tiger Upper Side

Even though a macro lens and a flash setup is ideal to get extremely closeup photos of these butterflies, my tele-macro setup works nice. Drawback of this setup is that it needs a good light and is heavy and cumbersome. So it is not very portable. With that setup I can take quite a good amount of closeup shots with a very creamy bokeh effect. I can also using the same setup photograph birds and other distant object which is a real bonus as the same rig works as dual purpose setup.

Female Plain Tiger Closeup

Male Scarlet Skimmer

Photographing dragonflies is very rewarding experience. They exhibit a wide range of bright colors and present a challenge to photograph, at rest or in-flight. My favorite dragonfly photography lens was Canon EF 300mm f/4L telephoto lens as it had minimum focusing distance among all the large telephoto lenses I possessed. Now since I sold that lens for a brighter Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L I added a 1.4x teleconverter, for a bit of additional image magnification. You can also add 25mm extension ring and decrease minimal focus distance.

When I photograph dragonflies I like to have as much distance between me and the dragonfly as is practical. That is why I use this long telephoto lenses instead of a short macro lens. Photographing dragonflies from a distance does not disturb the dragonfly as you are least of a threat to it. It also gives me to better control the background in an image. Dragonflies are best photographed on plain, untextured backgrounds to reveal the intricate patterning of the wings. The wings of a dragonfly are quite transparent and the intricate veining of the wings can be lost against a background full of twigs, sticks, and gravel. Compare the first photo with the last one you will get what I mean.

Male Scarlet Skimmer

Dragonflies have a habit to come back to the same perch they were sitting. So if you keep focused on the twig where it was sitting you can get nice in flight shot without much of an effort. It is no use chasing them if you want to shoot dragon flies. Here are few links to know more about dragonfly photography.

• How I Photograph Dragonflies
• Dragonfly Photography 101
• Dragonfly Photography

Male Scarlet Skimmer

Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilia) is a medium sized blood red or reddish yellow dragonfly with amber colored patch at wing base. It is also known as Crimson Darter, Oriental Scarlet, Ruddy Marsh Skimmer.

The male Scarlet Skimmer is blood red in color. Face is blood red. Eyes are blood red above, purple on the sides. Thorax is blood red to bright orange. Abdomen is blood red with a mid dorsal black stripe. Legs are reddish. Wings are transparent with a base which is marked with rich amber. Wing spot is dark brown.

The female Scarlet Skimmer is reddish yellow in color. Face is pale yellow. Eyes are brown above and olivaceous below. Thorax is dark brown. Abdomen is yellowish brown with a mid dorsal black stripe. Legs are dark brown. Wings are transparent and basal amber marking paler than in the males. Wing spot is pale yellow.

Male Scarlet Skimmer in flight

Habits and habitat: One of the commonest red dragonflies. Frequently found in ponds, puddles, rivers, big wells, tanks, ditches and paddy fields. This dragonfly perches on aquatic weeds and chases any passing by dragonflies.

It breeds in marshes associated with ponds, rivers and tanks. Seen flying throughout the year. It is extremely widespread species, occurring throughout mainland tropical and subtropical Asia, Japan, the Ryukyu Archipelago, the greater and lesser Sunda isles, the Philippines and Sulawesi. In the west it extends into Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Turkey. It has been accidentally introduced into Florida in the USA.

Male Scarlet Skimmer

Monkey Puzzle

Monkey Puzzle I am referring to, is neither the political game which our politicians play, nor any other game I am trying to promote. That afternoon I was teaching my 10 year old daughter Neethi few basics of photography when she spotted a small butterfly with several tail filaments sitting on a crape jasmine bush. That butterfly is called Monkey Puzzle (Rathinda amor). My daughter wanted to try her hand on macro photography. I removed the flash and diffuser and just gave her my Canon EOS 1D Mark IV fitted with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens to try. Weight of this rig is too much to her tiny hands and she struggled to hold the weight. Nevertheless she managed to capture the butterfly quite successfully. Here is the photo she captured.

Monkey Puzzle

After she tried her hand, I wanted to take the similar shot. The butterfly was very cooperative. Here is my humble effort. As both of us were not using flash we had to push the ISO to 3200 to get aperture f/13 and speed of 1/200th second. Unfortunately the plant on which this butterfly was sitting was so awkward, that it allowed me only two good positions to take photos.

Monkey Puzzle

Later I connected my Canon Speedlite 580EX II with ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter. This gave me good light with which I could reduce the ISO to 100. The extra light from the flash allows you to extract a greater clarity from the picture by using lower ISO. The Monkey Puzzle, Rathinda amor is a small lycaenid or blue butterfly found in Western Ghats, South Indian plains, Orissa and Ganjam districts to Calcutta. Assam. Sri Lanka.

Monkey Puzzle

Its sexes alike. Wingspan – 26 to 28 mm. Upper side of this butterfly is dark brown. It has a white-spot end cell. It has narrow white spots on 2 and 3 which form a short band on the fore wing. On the UPH it has two black tornal spots and narrow dark reddish spot above them. The underside is white to dark yellowish brown. Fore wing has irregular dark basal markings with a curved white discal line. The apical two-fifths are a rich dark brown color. The hind wing has a silvery margin with many irregular black lines and spots within. It has three tails, being 2 mm, 6 mm and 2.5 mm in length.

Monkey Puzzle

This butterfly is found in jungle areas of moderate to heavy rainfall – both, in heavy forest and scrub. The butterfly occurs below 900 meters or so. It keeps to undergrowth and can be seen along forest paths and in clearings. The butterfly has a weak flight, it stays low and does not fly for long without alighting. Its method of alighting is interesting – as soon as it lands, it turns around and waggles its tail filaments, it also sidesteps for a while – all this is apparently to confuse a predator as to which side is the head. This is a likely reason that the first naturalists may have named the species the Monkey Puzzle. The butterfly has a number of food plants from families Rubiaceae, Dipterocarpeae, Euphorbiaceae, Loranthaceae, Sapindaceae and Myrtaceae. In my garden I found it was feeding on Ixora.