Mauritius - Butterflies - January 2023

We have just returned from a wonderful holiday to Mauritius where we returned to the same hotel where we were married 25 years ago. The hotel is set in over 60 acres of ground and the forecast wasn't particularly positive, so we spent the whole short stay at the hotel, which was no hardship!

When we were there 25 years ago I remember noticing how many butterflies, birds and other wildlife there was around the island, but I wasn't as obsessed about butterflies as I am now, so I didn't take so much notice of them.

However, we returned in 2011 with our children and my father when I took a lot more notice of the butterflies, as noted in my post then! Also, having a digital camera it was possible to photograph the butterflies for identification. The limited information available about the butterflies of Mauritius suggests that there are more butterflies around in January, which is the middle of summer there.

This time, as with our last visit, I noticed that there were loads of small butterflies flying around the grass and flower beds. I struggled to identify them because of their size and because there are a number of similar species, so had to photograph any I had a chance to and then identify them from the pictures. The vast majority of these butterflies turned out to be African Grass Blues, Zizeeria knysna. There were hundreds of them flying around all over the hotel grounds and even on the beach, where I noticed them flying along the tide line and landing on the sand.

The other little butterfly that I saw was the Common Zebra Blue, Leptotes pirithous. In Europe I know these as Lang's Short-tailed Blue. I think about 10% of the small butterflies I saw turned out to be these. I noticed that these were a bit more active than the African Grass Blues and they often landed a bit higher up in the vegetation.

Out of all of the pictures I took of these smaller butterflies, only one turned out to be the Tiny Grass Blue, Zizula hylax. They really are tiny, with a wingspan of between 11 and 15mm.

Other single Lycaenidae sightings included a Long-tailed Blue, Lampides boeticus. I saw this one laying eggs and only managed one fuzzy picture.

I saw another larger Lycaenidae, flying high in the trees. It eventually landed on a palm tree and as expected it turned out to be a Brown Playboy, Deudorix antalus. I had noticed on my last visit that they tend to fly among shrubs and the low branches of trees.

The final Lycaenidae I saw was a butterfly that appeared to be behaving a little strangely on a highly scented flowering shrub. I only managed to take one poor picture, but it is enough to confirm that it is the African Line Blue, Pseudonacaduba sichela.

I think that the second most common butterfly was the African Migrant, Catopsilia florella. The male of this species is greenish-white, but the female occurs in both a white and a yellow form. The female also has brown marks on the underside of the wings. All of those I saw this time were white and possibly all males. I saw them flying all over the hotel grounds and occasionally they would flit from flower to flower on a hedge which had cascades of mauve flowers. On one occasion I saw one landing on the sand after a spell of rain. I noticed that it was landing next to the mauve petals that had fallen from a tree, possibly finding nectar, or just drinking the water caught within it.

I can't be sure that all of the white butterflies I saw were African Migrants as, when I was sorting my pictures once I returned home, I discovered that I had pictures of a Madagascar Migrant, Catopsilia thauruma. The yellow showing towards the centre of the underside of the forewing is the give-away.

Another, similar-sized butterfly was the Common Leopard, Phalanta phalantha. As with all of the other butterflies these were really active, but I did see them feeding occasionally on the small yellow flowers favoured by so many butterflies.

I spent a long time chasing after any Malagasy Grass Yellows, Eurema floricola. I love these little bright yellow butterflies that fly low to the ground and amongst the vegetation. Even when they were egg-laying they wouldn’t stop for more than about a second in any one place. They have a wingspan of about 35 to 40mm, just a little larger than a Small Copper. I noticed that in mid-afternoon they would fly around busily among the low branches of shrubs, eventually roosting. They would then remain there until the following morning.

One of the most spectacular butterflies in Mauritius is the Brilliant Blue, Junonia rhadama. These are about the size of a Small Tortoiseshell and the males are iridescent blue. They were usually seen flying in the same places as African Migrants and Common Leopards.

Most days I would see Citrus Swallowtails, Papilio demodocus, flying past. These lovely big butterflies would never stop! Most of the time they were flying quite high and with purpose, but occasionally they would flutter around a flowering shrub, but I didn’t see one land or feed at all. Obviously, they must do at some point, but I was never lucky enough to witness it.

Another busy butterfly was the Plain Tiger, Danaus chrysippus. I would see one a couple of times a day drifting amongst the vegetation, occasionally they would glide around me, but never stop. I did manage to get a picture of one, just by firing off my camera as it flew past. At least this confirmed that it was a Plain Tiger and not a Mimic butterfly, the female of which mimics the Plain Tiger.

The other two large butterflies I saw, but failed to photograph were the Mascarene Crow, Euphloea euphon. I saw this spectacular large black and white butterfly slowly gliding among some trees on just one occasion. The other butterfly was the Mauritian Friar, Amauris phaedon. It flew past me and around the corner of some ruins. I walked round the corner after it and couldn’t see it until I caught sight of it basking on a rock just as it took off!

The little Bush Brown, Henotesia narcissus, was always seen in dappled sunlight under trees, settling on the leaf litter.

I saw two different skippers, just briefly. The first was the Striped Policeman, Coeliades forestan. This is a quite large black and white skipper with a wingspan of about 60mm. I saw it several times on my last visit and noted that it continued to flutter its wings, even when feeding. On the one occasion I saw it on this trip it was equally as active!

The other skipper I saw briefly when it landed on a shrub when I was trying to photograph the Mauritius Blue. This one was the Orange Flat, Eagris sabadius, and it briefly landed behind some flowers on a shrub.

It was interesting returning to Mauritius in January. This is the middle of their summer and the hottest month, with average temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius. When we were previously there in August, it was their coolest month, but only by five degrees. January is also their wettest month and we did have quite a few showers and it was very humid. I thought that the butterflies were more active in January, but possibly the difference was that the two favourite plants to feed on, Lantana and a String Bush were not in flower, so they were not gathering at these two hot-spots. There were plenty of other flowering plants, so maybe the choice was greater in January and they weren't restricted to their two favourite plants!

However, when I was there in 2011 I only had a little compact camera, so had to get really close to the butterflies to photograph them. I couldn’t imaging getting that close when I visited this time, as they just didn't settle for any time at all.

It was really interesting that the little blue butterflies were active all day from early morning until the evening. The larger butterflies were only around in the morning and all disappeared at about 2pm. I don't know why that would be, as the temperature remained constant.

41 different species of butterflies have been recorded on Mauritius. Some are rare migrants and others are sadly now extinct. I think it could be said that 35 species regularly occur on the island. I was lucky enough to see 18 different species, which I am very pleased with considering I was only looking in the hotel grounds. Some species only occur in the mountains and others have only been seen on particular areas of the coast.

On our visit in 2011 I saw 17 species, mostly the same as this time, but there were four species I saw then, but not on this visit.

We love Mauritius so much we are determined to go back. I would like to go back for longer next time and visit a bit more of the island. It would be interesting to go at a different time of year to see if the butterflies are any different.