Jeremy Dobson reports back on a successful foray into Verloren Valei’s butterfly world.
Field trip participants — plus the all-important nets (Photograph: Jeremy Dobson)
As you may know, LepSoc Africa (LSA) holds corporate membership of Friends of Verloren Valei (FVV), an organisation dedicated to the conservation of this unique high-altitude wetland. To earn our keep, LSA undertakes an annual butterfly walk-and-talk at the reserve.
This year James van den Heever, Secretary of FVV, and I had selected Saturday 9 December for our field trip: this date was a bit late in the season for one of the endemic butterflies, Verloren Valei Bronze Speckled Widow (Serradinga clarki amissivallis), but should have been perfect for most other species.
James had put together a small but select group of delegates, and (unusually) the weather at Verloren Valei was pretty good, although it was rather windy. We assembled at the Verloren Valei offices at 9h00; unfortunately, two members of the group, Iain and Catherine Bryson got their dates mixed up, and Dietmar Ley, who was going to assist me, went to the stream outside the reserve and didn’t find us.
The veld was looking fantastic with loads of flowers and, with high hopes, I handed out a couple of nets and we set off in search of butterflies. After about an hour we’d located a single, rather tatty Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) and I was getting anxious as to how to entertain the group; I know few jokes and can’t sing or dance.
Fortunately, we had Kyle Lloyd in our midst. Reinier Terblanche is known as the “Fastest Net in the West”, but I believe Kyle deserves the Escarpment title. He would regularly disappear and then re-emerge with interesting butterflies for the group to inspect. These included some uncommon species, such as Stoffberg Russet (Aloeides rossouwi—Kyle discovered a strong colony north of the reception), Marsh Mountain Blue (Harpendyreus noquasa), Long-winged Amber (Telchinia alalonga), Verloren Valei Bronze Speckled Widow (Serradinga clarki amissivallis) and Silver Mountain Marsh Brown (Pseudonympha varii swanepoeli). I should add the identification of A. rossouwi is far from confirmed, but I’ve retained a couple of specimens for DNA barcoding.
In total, we recorded 16 species for the day; not a disaster, but I believe the abundance and diversity of butterflies at Verloren Valei was poor for this time of year. Whether this reflects an unusually tough season or whether we are witnessing, first hand, an onslaught of the Insect Apocalypse remains to be seen.
Stoffberg Russet (Aloeides rossouwi); Long-winged Amber (Telchinia alalonga and Silver Mountain Marsh Brown (Pseudonympha varii swanepoeli) (Photographs: Steve Vincent)
Checklist
Brown Dodger (Afrogegenes letterstedti)
Apricot Russet (Aloeides aranda)
Stoffberg Russet (Aloeides rossouwi)
Marsh Mountain Blue (Harpendyreus noquasa)
Common Zebra Blue (Leptotes pirithous pirithous)
Long-winged Amber (Telchinia alalonga)
Southern Gaudy Commodore (Precis octavia sesamus)
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)
Verloren Valei Bronze Speckled Widow (Serradinga clarki amissivallis)
False Silver-bottom Brown (Pseudonympha magoides)
Marsh Netted Brown (Pseudonympha paludis)
Silver Mountain Marsh Brown (Pseudonympha varii swanepoeli)
Rocky Hillside Brown (Stygionympha wichgrafi wichgrafi)
Southern Narrow-banded Malachite (Papilio nireus lyaeus)
Pioneer Caper White (Belenois aurota)
African Meadow White (Pontia helice helice)
