Malay Lacewing and Mangrove Tree Nymph

The above photo is another favorite of my mine when I went butterfly watching in Siquijor's Butterfly Garden.

The red,  black, white, orange and pink butterfly is a Malay Lacewing, which I detailed in my previous post  and noted as the most beautiful and colorful butterfly I have ever seen in my life.  

According to this site, the black, white and yellow one is a Mangrove Tree Nymph or Idea leuconoe chersonesia.  The said site described it as a black and white butterfly like the other species of the genus Idea but having marginal and submarginal spots that are conjoined to form an irregular black band and wing bases that are yellow-tinted.

Capturing both butterfly species in one photo is such a delight that it's no wonder this became an instant  favorite of mine.

Malay Lacewing

This is my best find in Siquijor's Butterfly Garden.

Butterflies have always fascinated me.  There's something so delicate in how they are and it's interesting to watch them in their gorgeous colors.  And the above happened to be the most beautiful and colorful butterfly that I have ever seen so far.

When I posted this in my Facebook travel group, my professor in college who is a bird and nature enthusiast encouraged me to post it in another Facebook page of butterfly enthusiasts.  There, I was given an ID of this beautiful  creature.

Malay Lacewing or Cethosia hypsea hypsina have forewings that are black with a white subapical band beyond the cell.  Its basal area is orange-red for the male (with the red confined to the base of the wings) and black for the female (with a yellowish-white patch in mid space).  

For more information, click HERE.

Siquijor's Island Butterfly Garden

Our next stop after Mt. Bandilaan was Siquijor's Island Butterfly Garden that required a Php 100.00 entrance fee.

The covered garden was smaller than Palawan's Butterfly Garden but the butterfly species here are better as in Palawan, there was too few variety.

Here too, the owner would proudly show you the actual stages of a butterfly cycle rather than conduct a briefing using pictures as what happened to my butterfly watching in Palawan.  Below is a photo of its egg.

Then comes the caterpillar stage.

The striped black and white caterpillar with red dots would of course eventually become the butterfly of the same color in my previous photo while the fat brownish one would become the black and white and yellow butterfly.

After the caterpillar stage is the chrysalis.

And these are again photos of the chrysalis but unlike the above, each chrysalis is already empty.

Below are more random shots taken during my walk around the garden.

Below are my best finds.

I was also charmed by the bird carvings made from coconut husk.  How creative and earth-friendly.

More creatively, there were these carvings of children right outside the garden.

These purple flowers also charmed me.

But not all that I saw  there brought smiles to my face as these photos broke my heart.

According to the owner, when butterflies lose their color and look battered as the butterflies in the above photos, they are already nearing the end of their life span.  How sad.

Butterfly Garden - Palawan

After touring the Crocodile Farm, we went to the Butterfly Garden and it was a short but still enjoyable tour.

Before the tour started, a simple talk was conducted but the place was crowded with tourists that I decided to just take some pics. Anyway, the tour guide was discussing about a butterfly's life cycle and I already knew about them as this was discussed in my elementary and high school science lessons.

I love butterflies. For as long as I can remember, I have always had a fascination with them. It was thus a wonder to be very near them, to closely watch them flit from one flower to another in all their colorful glory.

I even saw pink and blue butterflies but they were the ones who were very elusive. The black and white butterflies were the easiest to photograph as they did not seem to mind being very near humans. The others though would fly at the slightest human movement.

The farm had limited flora though. But I got fascinated with some flowers so I snapped their pics.

I also got fascinated with their "home" when they were about to populate. It's the pic below. Interesting.

All in all, it was a pretty laid back but still fun tour.