Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. - Jeffrey Glassberg
For some time, my husband (the Grim Reaper), has been agitating to lop a belt of trees in our garden to increase his harbour view.
I am glad I have stayed his hand. First of all, the time is not right for heavy pruning. Besides, these trees provide welcome shade in the heat and shelter for a wide variety of birds.
I felt vindicated one morning when a splendid African goshawk burst out of the greenery, right before our eyes, in hot pursuit of a tiny waxbill. It missed its prey, but we were thrilled to have this first-time visitor in our garden.
This is a great season for butterfly visitors too. Mostly we have the pretty Dotted Border floating lazily by in twos or threes. This is a creamy butterfly, with a flash of orange close to its body and, as its name suggests, an edging of black dots to its wings. At a quick glance, it could be confused with the Cabbage White, a pure white alien from Europe, whose larvae wreak havoc among brassicas, nasturtiums, stocks and many other plants, to the frustration of gardeners.
But the Dotted Border in contrast is quite harmless, entering gardens only to sip nectar or engage in marriage proposals with others of its kind. It lays numbers of eggs on the Cape Sumach (Colpoon compressum), a large, greyish shrub growing on rocky slopes in the wild and does not attack garden plants in any way. We are fortunate that this butterfly strayed from the Eastern Cape several decades ago, for at this time of year it is a beautiful addition to our gardens. Not surprisingly, the Chinese call butterflies “floating flowers”.
Another newcomer has been the handsome African Monarch, a larger butterfly, with tawny-orange wings tipped with bold black-and-white markings. For 10 years I have been trying to lure this beauty into my garden by growing its host plants, the milkweeds (Gomphrocarpus, formerly Asclepias spp) but only recently has it deigned to call. Nowhere in Simon’s Town had I seen it before, even though it is so widely distributed in southern Africa.
The above butterfly may be mistaken for the Garden Acraea, another tawny, but smaller species, with diaphanous wing tips. The larvae of this butterfly breed on the Wild Peach (Kiggelaria africana).
This indigenous tree, when pruned effectively, can be a useful shade provider. It has the added benefit of attracting two kinds of green cuckoo, that feed on the prickly black larvae of the Garden Acraea. Although usually large clusters of this butterfly are seen, I have spotted only a few stragglers so far. It may be a bit early, but then, too, its eggs and larvae are heavily parasitised by several small wasps.
With Britain so damaged by floods, and its insects in dire straits, we should count ourselves lucky that we are still blessed by so many of these beautiful butterflies. - Cape Argus