Butterflies of Sri Lanka - #08 Plain Tiger

On that Saturday afternoon, weather was very hot and dry. Pre-monsoon clouds were gathering on the horizon. The place I was trying to photograph was quiet and deserted. I was carrying my trusted Nikon D3200 equipped with Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Lens. If you have read my earlier posts you will notice that I use this rig for most of my macro photography. Today I wanted to try without 28-115mm DIA Metal Tripod for support. Unfortunately I could not find any butterflies or dragonflies that day. All seems to be hiding in shade from the unforgiving heat. After a long search I spotted a Plain Tiger butterfly (Danais chrysippus) basking on a dry shrub.

Lighting was not optimal. I had bright sun sharp and high up in the sky. The folded wings of the butterfly look better if they were nicely side-lit. Unfortunately I was not carrying my flash along with me so I used Ferrania 52mm UV Macro filter as a reflector to get as much light as possible on the body of the butterfly. As you can see the results are very sharp. All these photos are slightly cropped so as to eliminate the surrounding shrubs. I used f/8 aperture as that was the sharpest aperture I found using this fix.

The range of the Plain Tiger extends from Africa and southern Europe, eastwards via Sri Lanka, India, and Myanmar to China. This butterfly is perhaps the commonest of Sri Lankan butterflies and is a familiar sight to practically everyone on the subcontinent.

As usual for diurnal butterflies, this species rests with its wings closed.

                                                                             Forewing


ISO -200  f/8 1/125sec

ISO -320  f/8 1/125sec

When basking it sits close to the ground and spreads its wings with its back to the sun so that the wings are fully exposed to the sun’s rays.

Like Tawny Coster, Plain Tiger is protected from attacks due to the unpalatable alkaloids ingested during the larval stages.