Black Jezebel butterfly

[ptiloris]

Hi all,

This morning, 10 August 2005, my suburban backyard in SE Queensland, Australia, is overloaded with
natural beauty.
A sample of the sights to be seen:
3 species of honeyeaters, a Sacred Kingfisher, a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, a Spangled Drongo, a
White-faced Heron and several other common bird species.

But.....out-shining them all are the Jezebel butterflies!

There are at least two Delias species flitting around the yard at the moment.
One is Delias nigrina (Black or Common Jezebel) and another which I suspect may be the Scarlet (or
Northern) Jezebel, Delias argenthona.

With a great deal of patience I was able to photograph the Black Jezebel but the other species has
eluded me so far.

Coincidentally, yesterday I purchased a copy of Michael F Braby's "The Complete Field Guide to
Butterflies of Australia" (2005) to complement my copy of "Butterflies of Australia" by Common and
Waterhouse (Field Edition 1982). Unfortunately, this has created a dilemma in that the illustrations
for male and female of this butterfly species are reversed in the two books.

Going by 'Braby' this appears to be a female.

How did I take the photo?
Handheld;
Canon EOS 20D Digital SLR, Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 macro lens, Canon Speedlite 580 EX flash;
Manual Mode, 1/250 sec, ISO 400, f/22, F=90mm.

Butterflies are beaut!!

Cheers

Bob Inglis
Woody Point
Queensland
Australia

[Marie Tarrant]

Wonderful pic Bob, I know by experience what hard work Jezebels like to
make it for anyone to get any kind of pic at all of them, they never
seem to stop for a moment and they prefer the tops of trees to the
lower levels. They have been the source of much frustration on my
part!
Marie Tarrant