This tour was
limited to 4 participants to minimise
trampling at the mud holes, and to make life easier for
photographers on the narrow trails.
After our long
and very tiring
flight from London via Dallas and Sao Paulo to Cuiaba, we
drove to a city hotel for a good night's
rest. The following morning we
transferred to the domestic airport for our flight to Alta
Floresta, where we had lunch, and then drove
to the jetty on the Rio Teles Peres. From there we had a short
boat journey to our lodge on the Rio
Cristalino.
Rio Cristalino reaffirmed it's
standing as the most productive
butterfly site I have visited in the neotropics. As on our previous visit we had an excellent
guide / boatman, who
very helpfully baited tree-trunks
with banana and fish, which were both efficient at attracting many
butterflies.
We saw many Satyrines,
Lycaenids and Riodinids as we
walked the trails, and several magnificent
Nymphalids, including a gorgeous male
Hamadryas velutina which
basked on a tree trunk.
The most productive area however was the peccary wallow, which
attracted hordes of Nymphalids, and thankfully on this occasion did
not attract the swarms of sweat bees, wasps and hoverflies that were so
troublesome the previous year. There were
hordes of beautiful species at the
wallow including the stunning red and black
Siderone galanthis, several
Adelpha sp, a
Methona mimicking Dismorphiine
- Patia orise,
and the brilliant metallic green metalmark
Caria mantinea.
The trails
radiating from the lodge were
particularly good for Satyrines, producing
Haetera pierella, several Pierella species, and a variety of
Euptychia /
Cissia. The nicest Satyrines
however were the wonderful dead-leaf mimics
Taygetis angulosa and Taygetis mermeria. Brassolines included
Catoblepia berecynthia, Opoptera aorsa and
at
least 3
species of Caligo
Owl butterflies. Nymphalines
included dazzling Catonephele
and Nessaea species, and the
lovely Hamadryas chloe. Other
species along the trail included the metallic blue
Mesosemia marisa, and the
green Lycaenid Arcas imperialis,
which periodically plopped down from the trees to land on low
foliage.
As on our
previous trip, the Sarota
species attracted a lot of attention. They appeared early in the
mornings at the edge of a glade, zipping
around the tops of banana trees, looking just like houseflies.
They occasionally settled,
and when I looked closely at their undersides, resplendent
in dark red with orange and metallic
blue markings, I pondered on how such amazing beauty and
intricate patterning could have evolved,
and what purpose it might serve. Why such beauty in such a tiny
insect ?
A full moon at the time of our
visit greatly reduced the number of moths attracted to UV light at
the moth sheet, but one small species attracted a lot of attention
- a metallic green moth with strange bell-shaped wings. Other insects at the moth
sheet includes the metalmark
Anteos renaldus, a huge
lantern bug, and praying mantises.
On several occasions we went by
longboat to explore various trails and lagoons, and to visit the
large island at the mouth of the Rio Cristalino. Each site
produced butterfly species that were new to us, and each river
journey provided us with sightings of beautiful kingfishers. The
bird which excited us most however was the very beautiful and
graceful Capped Heron, which we saw on 3 occasions.
Tapirs, which we had seen several times on our first tour in 2005,
were not seen on this tour.
Our most
memorable encounter was with a vast Anaconda. Our guide had
discovered it the previous day, and took us to the spot. With
some trepidation we
clambered up the bank of the river, and found the huge snake
staring straight at us from a distance of less than 2 metres.
Fortunately for us it had recently eaten, it's belly
greatly distended by it's previous meal, probably a Capybara or
Giant River Otter, both of which we saw
frequently on the river. We estimated
the snake to be 8 metres
long !
