Click on the pics to load them in higher resolution

I was over the moon when I first photographed this butterfly in Cotigao wildlife sanctuary. This exquisite butterfly was pointed out to me by my butterfly-ing buddy Simran Sidhu. Considering I had never seen it before I figured I had captured something really rare on my camera.

Male

Two weeks later Yashodan Heblekar bust that bubble for me by remarking ‘Oh the Tamil Lacewing! one of the most photogenic and easy butterflies to photograph…’ upon seeing one at his own butterfly park!

I was so enraged that I almost close-lined Heblekar across a metal railing on which he was leaning! Turns out he is right. The Tamil lacewing perches pretty, still, and unperturbed by humans on flowers and is definitely one of the easiest butterflies to photograph.

Female

But despite the ease of photographing the lacewing I still can’t stop myself from photographing it every time I see it. It remains one of my favorite butterflies and this post therefore includes several photographs of it in very different poses.

Interestingly the Tamil Lacewing is not found in the state of Tamil Nadu at all. Heblekar tells me however that an attempt at renaming this butterfly to the Sahyadri lacewing was met with fury and rage on the internet and the butterfly therefore remains with the misleading original name!

At the butterfly park in Cotigao I was also fortunate to closely observe and photograph the strikingly colored caterpillars of the Tamil lacewing. The park runs a breeding program for these butterflies along with several other species.