Impostor! Fly away now!

Two butterflies are about to have a showdown

Nefarious: It is I, Nefarious Purpus, now step away from my food Nervus Illnus!

Nervus: Oh my goodness! You startled me… what’s wrong with you Neffy old boy, calm down.

Nefarious: You Glassy Tigers are all the same, copying the look of the Plain Tigers and now, stealing our food too.

Nervus: First of all, you’re Orange, Black and white, whereas I am Black and white with a hint of Blue. Second of all I was just investigating an interesting flower, not stealing food.

Nefarious: Begone foul shade of hell! You’re just jealous because my kind, the Plain Tigers, were the first butterflies depicted in art… 3,500 years ago!

Nervus: Foul shade? Sounds exotic, I’ll take that as a compliment and as for the art, well done for being the first, that’s quite an achievement.

Nefarious: Leave my wide open fields, for they are my domain!

Nervus: You can keep your stinking field. Just for the record, this field actually stinks of buffalo doo-doo. I normally keep 5 feet above ground just because of that. I only came down to look at the flower.

Nefarious: A likely story impostor! You were just trying to escape predators by impersonating me!

Nervus: Neff… your kind really got it right when they made themselves unpalatable to predators by feeding on toxic plants like Milkweed. But is it so wrong that other butterflies escape a dreadful fate by trying to look like you? Is it such a crime?

Nefarious: It is you imbecile.. Oh wait, what’s happening? Oooh my head…. Oh hi Nervus, what am I doing here? The last thing I remember, I was sniffing around a bottle on a garbage dump and then everything went blank.

Nervus: Ah, I knew you were feeling out of sorts, old friend.

Nefarious: I don’t even know how I got here.

Nervus: Come on Neffy, let’s fly over to that puddle and grab a drink, and I’ll tell you all about your shenanigans.

Story of the Photo

Sri Lanka has quite a diverse population of butterflies and they are quite prevalent in and around the Mahoora Camps. Dilum captured this image by a lake, close to the Mahoora Tented Safari Camp in Wilpattu.