Cape Autumn Widow

Flying around the Common now are lots of pretty brown butterflies. These are Cape Autumn Widows (Dira clytus) that are related to the Table Mountain Beauty. They are known as browns and belong to the family Nymphalidae and subfamily Satyrinae. The underside of the wing in most browns is cryptically coloured and eyespots are common. Foodplants are grasses and sedges.
Cape Autumn Widow butterflies fly slowly just above grass, often settling on bare patches of ground. The females scatter eggs in flight. The larvae are well camouflaged and feed on various grasses. Their preferred habitat is grassy areas on mountain slopes and lower ground.
Information from Field guide to insects of South Africa by Mike Picker, Charles Griffiths and Alan Weaving, Struik.

African monarch butterflies on the Common

This morning, as well as seeing Maya on the Common (see photo below), I saw lots and lots of African monarch butterflies - mainly on exotic viper’s bugloss Echium vulgare flowers. Appropriately, the African monarch, Danaus chrysippus, is a common butterfly. It is poisonous as its leisurely flight indicates, and lays its eggs on various asclepiads (Apocynaceae) from which it must get its poison. The plant it seems to favour most is Gomphocarpus fruticosus (formerly Asclepias fruticosa), commonly known as milkweed, wild cotton, tontelbos, wildekapok, tennis ball bush and swan plant. It is toxic as it contains a heart glycoside and occurs in permanent and seasonal streams, flood plains and disturbed areas from the Cape Peninsula northwards throughout southern Africa and further north.

Although I didn't notice any on the Common, this is what Gomphocarpus fruticosus looks like. (See also the Plantzafrica site at http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantefg/gomphocarpfrut.htm )
Caroline Voget