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.

Mauritius - Butterflies - August 2011

Last summer my father treated my wife, two kids and me to a two-week holiday in Mauritius. He had offered to take us away on holiday anywhere we wanted and my wife and I were married there 13 years earlier. We had always intended to return, but the cost was prohibitive with the kids as well!! It was fantastic being back at the same hotel and the kids enjoyed the luxury of being at an all inclusive resort for the first time.
Although much of the island has been taken over by sugar cane plantations, the Hotel Maratim is set in 25 hectares of grounds where I was able to sneak off and look for butterflies!

Probably the most common butterfly I saw was the African Grass Blue, Zizeeria knysna. As the name suggests this little butterfly flew around the grass in the hotel grounds and fed on flowering shrubs such as Lantana.

It was rare to see them with their wings open, but as with many blues the upper side of the female was mostly brown while the male was blue with darker edging.

It was funny that the African Grass Blue was the butterfly that I set out to see in Spain in April without any luck. I then found it in Lanzarote and again in Mauritius.

The other blue that was regularly found flying around flowering shrubs was what is called the Common Blue in Mauritius, but I know it as Lang's Short-tailed Blue, Leptotes pirithous. The ones I saw in Mauritius seemed to be more heavily marked than those I have seen in Europe and I presume they are the subspecies insulanus, which is found in Mozambique. 

Another regular butterfly was the diminutive Tiny Grass Blue, Zizula hylax. This is the smallest butterfly I have ever seen with a wingspan of only about 15mm.

This butterfly was so tiny that my camera had trouble focusing on it. Most of my pictures ended up being deleted and none of them were perfectly in focus.

There was another blue that I could rely upon seeing each day - the Brown Playboy, Deudorix antalus. This would often drop down from a tree onto the ground just like a falling leaf. It is also cleverly marked with a false eye and tails that look like antennae at the ends of its wings. These markings can often save the life of the butterfly when birds peck at the wrong end resulting in the butterfly losing a bit of its wings, but surviving to fly another day.

I found a bush in a corner of the grounds of the hotel (since identified as a String Bush, Cordia cylindristachya) that must have regularly hosted over 100 of the above four species of butterflies. I regularly visited it and spent ages checking out each butterfly looking for Clover Blues, Zizina antanossa. This butterfly is almost identical to the African Grass Blue, but it is lacking one spot on the underside of the fore wing. I didn't find any, but while I was looking I found a couple of other butterflies. This is a faded Plains Cupid, Chilades pandava demonstrating what happens when it has been attacked by a bird having lost its eye spots and tails. This butterfly was first recorded in Mauritius in 2000 and is now considered a pest as its caterpillars feed on Sago Palms.

And this is a sub-species of the African Line Blue, Pseudonacaduba sichela reticulum, which only occurs on Mauritius. I only saw it very briefly and it flew over the other side of the bush, so I was very pleased to get this picture.

This is a rather poor picture of a not very colourful butterfly! It is the Olive Haired Swift, Borbo borbonica. I disturbed it when I was walking in some grass and it flew up in front of me, briefly landed and then flew off and I wasn't able to find it again.

The other Hesperiidae I saw was a little easier to see. It was the Striped Policeman, Coeliades forestan abrogates. I regularly saw this feeding on Lantana plants, but it was never still. It would constantly vibrate its wings while it was feeding.

A much more colourful butterfly, and the one I really wanted to see was the Brilliant Blue, Junonia rhadama. I saw it most days, but it was very difficult to approach. This is a female, which can be identified by having two eye spots on each hind wing.

And this is a male, with only one eye spot and brighter blue wings. It took me a long time to manage to sneak up close enough for this picture!

The colour varied depending on how the sun hit the wings. Sometimes it was very bright blue and other times it was more of a purple colour.

The underside wasn't as bright, but still beautifully marked.

The Common Leopard, Phalanta phalantha was another regular in the hotel grounds. Like the Striped Policeman it never seemed to stop flapping its wings! However, one day, when it clouded over, I came across three of them sitting on the ground with their wings open.

On a number of occasions I saw a small yellow butterfly whiz past me, flying close to the ground. One day I decided to follow one, expecting that is must stop flying at some point. I think I followed it for about half an hour until the sun went behind a cloud and it settled on the ground. This one turned out to be Eurema floricola, the Malagasy Grass Yellow. The forewing of this super little butterfly is only about 20mm long and the upper side of the wings have a narrow black border.

Eurema brigitta, the Broad-Bordered Grass Yellow also occurs in Mauritius, but it isn't as bright yellow as the Malagasy Grass Yellow.

Henotesia narcissus narcissus is a kind of Bush Brown but I don't think it has a common name. They were usually found in wooded areas, dropping to the ground from the trees. 

This is the underside of  Henotesia narcissus narcissus.

On the second morning of our holiday I checked out a flower bed in the hotel grounds close to our room. Amongst the butterflies there was this black and white one. I took some pictures and then became distracted by the other butterflies there. At the time I didn't have a butterfly book for the island, but a few days later I bought one in Port Louis. I was then able to identify this as Hypolimnas anthedon drucei, a butterfly that has only been recorded a few times in Mauritius, the last time being 1957!! It is much more common in Madagascar, but that is over 600 miles away. It makes me wonder whether this species has quietly been living in Mauritius, unnoticed, or if this one somehow arrived here from Madagascar.

One evening when we were walking  back to our room I spotted a butterfly on the wall of the covered walkway. It was a Common Evening Brown, Melanitis leda. These butterflies tend to fly in the evening as it is going dark. When I had seen them flying on previous days I had thought that they were large moths.

All of the above photographs were taken in the hotel grounds. We did see a number of butterflies in other places around the island, but there was never the opportunity to photograph them. Other species that I saw included the African Migrant, Catopsilia florella. This large white or yellow butterfly was quite common, but I never saw one at rest. There is a similar butterfly, Catopsilia thauruma, which comes in either a pale or bright yellow, but this is less common than the African Migrant. A couple of times I saw a Plain Tiger, Danaus chrysippus, flying past, although neither times did it land. The final butterfly I saw as the Citrus Swallowtail, Papilio demodocus, which is quite a rapid flyer. It was another butterfly that sadly didn't stop for a photograph!

We visited the Isles aux Aigrettes, which is an island nature reserve run by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. It is a fascinating place, where they are trying to eradicate non-native plant species and protect endemic flora and fauna. We learned a lot from their very informative guide. 

Giant tortoises have been reintroduced onto the island as they are an important link in the chain for the germination of some seeds.

This is a Mauritius Fody. There were only a handful of them left because the Madagascar Fody had out-competed them. Now, thanks to a breeding programme they are being re-introduced onto the Mauritian mainland.

This is an Ornate Day Gecho, which is also struggling since the introduction of the rather dull gecko from Madagascar.

There were many sad stories of once numerous species that have either become endangered or extinct. The most famous of which is the dodo. This is a Pink Pigeon, which had declined to fewer than 10 individuals in 1990 before a rescue programme that has resulted in there now being over 400 on Mauritius.

Sadly there is less than 2.5% of the native forest left on Mauritius. Much of what I had thought was native forest was made up of introduced species. The ebony forests have mostly been cut down. The last time we were there we visited the Black River Gorge, which is the main area that remains of native forest. It is a lovely area, but sadly we didn't get a chance to visit it this year. I believe that I would have seen some different butterflies if we had managed to go there this time.

The butterfly book that I bought lists 38 species on Mauritius, but some of these are rare migrants and others are now considered extinct. I think that it would be more realistic to say that somewhere around 30 species occur on Mauritius. I was lucky enough to see 17 species of butterflies, most of them new to me, which isn't bad considering it was winter when we visited!

We'll definitely be going back in the future!

Post Script:

In January 2023 we returned to Mauritius to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Details of the butterflies I saw on that visit can be found here.