Half an hour in the Khunchae National Park

Riding back from Mae Sai to Chiang Mai I stopped for just a short break in the Khunchae National Park, Chiang Rai province.

Just at the side of the road was a small stream where a few butterflies of the Lycaenidae family, also known as Blues and Judies were puddling. In fact in a 30 minute period I was able to photograph 5 new species our site and make fairly solid identification on 4 of them.

---

The most numerous of the butterflies here were Pale Hedge Blue's , Udara dilecta dilecta (Moore, 1879). This was the first time I got to photograph this species of butterfly.

Udara dilecta dilecta

Udara dilecta dilecta

Udara dilecta dilecta

Udara dilecta dilecta

---

Another first sighting fro me were a few Zebra Blues (Leptotes plinius).

Leptotes plinius

Leptotes plinius

---

Only a few Lesser Grass Blue's (Zizani otis lampa) were prescent.

Zizina otis lampa

Also making an appearance was a Forget-me-not (Catochrysops strabo strabo).

Catochrysops strabo strabo

---

Finally this unidentified Lycaenidae butterfly