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Trip Reports
Butterfly-watching Holidays
Peru Page 1
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August 2007
a group
bird-watching and butterfly study tour operated by Toucan Tours.
Tour leader - Frank
Lambert
Participants Adrian
Hoskins, Steve Meredith, Colin & Anne Horne, Robin & Kirsten
Leung, Uzelle Williams and Brian Foster.
Trip report by
Adrian Hoskins
Our tour began in the ancient Inca capital of
Cusco, one of the highest altitude cities in the world, at 3200m.
We began with a day trip to the nearby Huacarpay lakes - an area
of marshland set amongst otherwise very arid grasslands. Butterfly
diversity at such a high altitude was expected to be very low, but
we saw several interesting species including the tiny Nabokov's
Lycid Nabokovia cuzquenha, Gulf
Fritillary Agraulis vanillae,
and several skippers including the Cusco Grizzled Skipper
Pyrgus bocchoris cuzcona.
The following morning we had a pre-dawn
departure by minibus, for our epic 280 km journey across the
Andes. For several hours we climbed the tortuous zigzag route up
the western slopes, amidst a barren rocky landscape, with
precipitous drops at the side of the fragile single track road.
Eventually we emerged onto the high altitude puna grasslands - a
silent and serene area bathed in warm sunshine. Here, above the clouds
at an altitude of over 4000m it was hardly
surprising that butterflies were very scarce, but in fields close
to a small village we found dozens of Puna Clouded Yellows
Colias euxanthe, and several
Peruvian Puna Skippers Hylephila peruana.
Hylephila peruana, puna grasslands,
3500m
In the early afternoon we began our descent
from the puna, and by mid afternoon we entered Manu Biosphere
Reserve at Tres Cruces, at which point the scenery changed
dramatically, with stunted cloudforest stretching across the peaks to the horizon.
Within a few minutes we had our first really exciting find - a
group of 4 Ornate Juneas Junea doraete,
one of the prettiest Satyrines in the neotropics. Equally exciting
was a huge skipper Metardaris cosinga,
marked in black and yellow, and with a furry red abdomen.
As our descent continued we made many roadside
stops - unfortunately these were usually of fairly short duration
as we had to arrive at our accommodation before dusk. Amongst
species seen along the roadside were the Andean Painted Lady
Vanessa altissima, the pretty
Pierines Hesperocharis nereina
and H. marchallii, and
numerous high altitude Satyrines including the strange metallic
silver Punargentus lamna,
plus Lymanopoda translucida,
Druphila venerata, and the
stunning tailed Striped Falcon Corades
ulema.
Wayqecha
- stunted high altitude cloudforest, with puna grasslands on distant horizon
After a night at Wayqecha, a frosty
morning soon gave way to warm sunshine and clear views across the
stunning Andean panorama of cloudforest covered mountains. More
roadside stops produced further high altitude Satyrines including
the beautiful white-banded Oressinoma typhla,
and Nymphalids including Hypanartia
kefersteini and Orophila diotima.
We also saw our first Heliconiines of the trip
Heliconius erato - a species which produces many
different geographical colour forms, the local form being
chocolate brown with cream spots on the forewings and radiating
red lines on the hindwings.
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Caligo oileus,
one of several very large and similarly patterned Owl
butterflies. |
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Looking south-west
across the Andes from San Pedro, August 2007
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For the next 2 days we were based at Manu
Paradise Lodge, at 1400m. From there we visited a nearby
Cock-of-the-Rock lek, where we saw stunning displays by a group of
about a dozen of these magnificent red birds. On the forest trails
and along Manu road many interesting butterflies were seen
including several Perisama
species, Adelpha alala,
Rhetus dysonii, and
our first Owl butterflies Caligo
idomeneus
and C. oileus.
Every night hundreds
of moths gathered at the lights at the lodge - micros, hawkmoths,
silkmoths, emeralds and amazing wasp-mimicking Arctiids.
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an Arctiid moth,
probably a Cosmosoma species, at rest
on mosquito netting at the lodge |
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