Yellow Bush Dart

One late evening I found this whitish bodied damselfly resting on a dry twig in the garden. It was quite dark outside. So I picked up my macro rig which consisted of Canon EOS 5D mark II fitted with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. For illumination I used ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter fitted on to Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash. It was sitting almost close to the ground in a very tight corner. As focusing was difficult, I used my Canon Right Angle Finder and photographed this damselfly almost lying down on the ground. If I had flippable live view finder like Canon EOS 600D it would have been wonderful. Due to the low light I was not able to see the damselfly properly. Fortunately the white body of the damselfly helped in my focus. Even though I was very close to the ground, the background was not clear as it was surrounded by bushes. I could later identify that it was a Male Yellow Bush Dart damselfly (Copera marginipes)

Yellow Bush Dart

Male Yellow Bush Dart is little larger than female. Characteristic feature of Yellow Bush Dart is a black band which extends from eye to eye. Male Yellow Bush Dart has eyes which are black above, greenish on sides and beneath with black equatorial band. Thorax is bronze black with fine yellow lines on sides. The stripe on sides is narrow and pale greenish yellow. Legs are bright yellowish orange. Wings are transparent. Wing spot is brown. Abdomen is bronzed black above. Segment 3-6 with a pale stripe along the side and a narrow pale greenish white ring at the end of each segment.

Yellow Bush Dart

The specimen I had was more whitish than brown that was because the damselfly was in the teneral phase. Teneral is the period when the adult insect is newly emerged from the pupal case or nymphal skin. During the teneral period, the insect’s exoskeleton has not hardened or darkened, leaving it vulnerable. The term comes from the Latin tener, meaning soft, young, and tender.

Yellow Bush Dart

Female Yellow Bush Dart’s ground color is dark with varying shades of brown. Eyes are similar to the male but has a brown cap. Thorax is brown. The black stripe above is similar to that of males and black stripe on sides is irregular. Legs are brownish. Wings are transparent. Wing spot is pale brown. Abdomen is brown above with broad rings towards the end. Half of 8th segment and the whole of 9-10th segments pale brownish white.

Yellow Bush Dart

Found along ponds, puddles, canals and streams. Flies less than a meter above the ground. It breeds in shallow water collections, such as rainwater puddles and backwaters of streams. Flight season is from August to November. Distributed throughout the oriental region.

Mating Common Mormons

Monsoon rain was lashing heavily that day. That morning when there was a brief respite from the rain, I went home to grab a quick cup of coffee, I saw these Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) mating on the citrus plant. Leaving the coffee aside I grabbed my camera and rushed to get these photos. The place where these butterflies were mating was a tricky one. It was on a precarious ledge so I had very little space to maneuver myself. They were hanging from a bush which had only one clear opening, rest of the surrounding was covered by leaves. Light was pretty abysmal. As I had sold my 5D Mark II that time I had only one camera. I fitted my Canon EOS 1D Mark IV with Canon EF 100 f/2.8L IS USM. For the light I used ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter on Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash.

The female Common Mormon was hanging from the citrus leaf and male was attached to the female. Weight of the both these butterflies was carried by female. Even though I was not expecting them to fly off in that position I did not want to disturb their coitus. Using the only window of opening I had, I tried to take photograph before the rain resumed.

Mating Common Mormons

At the first sight both butterflies look so dissimilar. That is because the female Common Mormon is mimicking the Crimson Rose (Atrophaneura hector) butterfly. Common Mormons are not toxic but by mimicking the toxic butterfly they escape being eaten by birds which mistake them for Crimson Rose.

Henry Walter Bates, determined that these multi-morph females are mimicking other butterflies. In the areas where the Mormons occur, there are other species of butterflies that look like one or another morph of the Mormon females. These other species feed on toxic plants such as Aristolocia, which renders them unpalatable to predators. The Mormon females, which are palatable, mimic the unpalatable model thus gaining protection from predators that mistake them for the other bad tasting species. This type of mimicry has become known as Batesian mimicry in honor of Bates who first described it in 1862.

Male Common Mormon

The male has one morph only. It is a dark-coloured swallow-tailed butterfly. The upper forewing has a series of white spots decreasing in size towards the apex. The upper hindwing has a complete discal band of elongated white spots. It may or may not have marginal red crescents. The males are smaller in size than the females.

The female of the Common Mormon is polymorphic. In South Asia, it has three forms or morphs. These are as follows:

• Form romulus: This female form mimics the Crimson Rose and is common over its range. It is not such a close mimic as the previous form being duller than its model, the Crimson Rose. It is easy to differentiate the mimics from models by the color of their body—the models are red-bodied and the mimics are black-bodied. This is the form you are seeing in these photographs.
• Form cyrus: This form is similar to the male, differing in that it always has strongly marked red crescents. It is the least common of the three forms. It is normally abundant where the Common Rose or Crimson Rose do not occur, such as in Himachal Pradesh around Shimla.
• Form stichius: This female form of the Common Mormon mimics the Common Rose very closely. This is the commonest form wherever the Common Rose flies.

Closeup of female Common Mormon

Common Mormon butterfly is considered as the classic example of Batesian Mimicry in which edible species resemble unpalatable butterflies in order to escape being eaten by predators. The populations of the mimicking morphs of the Common Mormon are much smaller than that of their models – the Common or Crimson Rose. This is in order to allow first time predators a much greater chance of preying upon the unpalatable model in the first instance and thus learning of their in-edibility.

Larger populations of mimics could result in the edible Common Mormon mimics being sampled the first time by predators. If this should happen, the predator may not realize that butterflies of that color and pattern are protected by the poisons they ingest; thus dramatically reducing the effectiveness of this scheme of protection.

Mating Common Mormons

If you are wondering how these butterflies got their name, here is an interesting fact. Harish Gaonkar, of the Natural History Museum in London, recently wrote

the origins of giving common English names to organisms, particularly butterflies for tropical species started in India around the mid 19th century.The naming of Mormons evolved slowly. I think the first to get such a name was the Common Mormon (Papilio polytes), because it had three different females, a fact that could only have been observed in the field, and this they did in India. The name obviously reflected the Mormon sect in America, which as we know, practiced polygamy.

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens

After returning from Lakshadweep I received my new Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM which i had ordered almost 2 moths prior to my departure to Lakshadweep Islands. Here is my short review on that. I find Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is an ideal walkabout lens. Lens really isn’t too heavy (only 2.5Kg ) and when combined with a good neoprene strap, there is no hardship on a good hike/walk and the performance and potential rewards are well worth the effort. In reality, you really won’t be holding the camera up to the eye for prolonged lengths of time. I also purchased an Indian made Gimbal tripod head via eBay for mounting this lens which I will review later.

The lens arrived in the CS30028 case, looked a bit feminine if truth be told (reminds of a vanity/make-up case). Also supplied is the obligatory slip-on lens cover, the E-145 in this case. This is a non-elasticated cover but quite awkward to remove and put back. I have found a 120mm plastic can lid which fits perfectly as a lens cap. It is easier than slip-on lens cover. The Canon EF300mm f2.8 is also supplied with the ET-120 lens hood. The lens hood is pain to slip on and off but is a life saver for all the glares as well as in preventing damage to front of the lens.

As with other Canon IS lenses, there is a comprehensive control panel to the side of the lens body. Uppermost on the switch control panel of the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is the focus limit control. 3 options here, the 2.5 metres – infinity (full) setting allows the lens to focus from minimum distance to infinity. Then the 2.5 metres – 6.4 metres and finally 6.4 metres to infinity. Basically, if you’re target is expected within a known distance from you, it speeds up autofocus if the lens isn’t hunting through it’s entire range to get a lock-on.

Next we have the AF/MF switch. Says it all really, though you can always operate the camera in manual focus even if it’s set to AF, being FTM (full time manual) design. Personally I would have prefered the option of totally disabling the focus ring, as it’s can shift if you’re working from something like a beanbag.

Next we have the IS switch, Image stabilization on or off. It has confusing 1 & 0 setting which originates from binary, I is on and 0 is off. IS is of older 2-3 stop range but is very useful. The drive is also queit as compared to my Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM lens.

Underneath the IS switch is the Image stabilization mode switch. Mode 1 controls movement vertically and horizontally, mode 2 just counteracts vertical movement so as to allow you to pan along with a subject without the IS system trying to compensate.

Lastly in this panel is the focus preset functions. Basically, you can set a focus distance on the lens, press ‘set’ and you can recall this distance at any time via the twist ring (the ring with the serrated edge) just in front of the focus ring. It’s handy feature if you’re likely to be shooting at 2 vastly different distances. I would prefer it if focus recall was an option on the 4 focus lock buttons and in a really ideal world, a focus recall button would be situated far closer to the camera body, or indeed controlled via the camera itself. I need to find out how to use them effectively.

The tripod collar can be simply removed from the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM, and this is my choice for use as a walk around lens.
To be honest, I haven’t had this lens very long, so this is just a first impression after 2 weeks or so, of some pretty grim weather. My main use for this lens is with tele-converters, so most of my initial use has been with the Canon EFII 1.4x and EFII 2x tele-converters attached, and quite frankly we all know what these flagship Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lenses are capable of used bare.

With the Canon EFII 2x Tele-converter auto focus speed does drop slightly, it’s fast and reliable but not exceptional as it is with a 1.4x tele-converter. As the whole combination is giving f5.6, all focus points on the Canon DSLR are available. Stopping down to f8 does reap the rewards over having the aperture wide open.

Minimum focus distance of Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is a relatively long 8.2′ (2.5m) for a maximum magnification of .13x. An extension tube can resolve this issue, but more assembly is required and infinity focus is lost. Maximum magnification is extended to .18x and .25x with 12mm and 25mm extension tubes respectively. Extenders do not affect the MFD (Minimum Focus Distance) of the lens they are mounted behind, thus the MM (Maximum Magnification) of the lens is also multiplied.

Over all results are fantastic, The Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens is probably most-noted for being extremely sharp. Results at f/2.8 are very sharp from the center right into the full frame corners and only a very slight improvement is noticed when stopped down. This lens is very usable at f/2.8 (I primarily use this lens at f/2.8) – if the super-thin DOF (Depth of Field) is adequate of course.

I am still getting my biceps ready to use these beast of a lens so wait for more photos soon. As you can see the samples of the pictures below I am using this lens as both macro & tele lens shootings birds and butterflies together (not in the same frame though ). Below are few early samples of House sparrow(Passer domesticus), Ashy Prinia (Prinia socialis) and Plain Tiger butterfly(Danaus chrysippus).

Male House Sparrow

Plain Tiger Butterfly

Ashy Prinia