Thanks to all of the contributors for clearing up the butterfly ID and those that advised on photo downloads.
Some notes on Obi Island.
This is my third trip to Obi and I am likely to make one more before Christmas.
DEFORESTATION:-
Not as severe as one may think, my estimation is that 12 to 18% of area has been cleared for settlements, associated small scale plantations, logging and one large Chinese operated nickel mine. All of the development is within 10 kms of the coastline. The centre of the island is just forest, nothing else not one single road.
Commercial logging operations appear to be all legal and controlled. Local villagers do chop down some trees, you often hear chainsaws going when traveling around. Overtime more coastal forest will disappear as the villagers expand their agriculture, however this will be at a slow pace while the price of copra remains low. There is talk of expanding the nickel mine. All the rivers and streams are full of small fish, I see frogs in the bushes using a torch at nighttime. Feral pigs are numerous.
ACCESS TO COLLECTING AREAS
Ironically you have to thank the logging companies for road construction, without these roads the access would be very much restricted. The northern part of the island has roads that give access to several river systems. However you need to travel to the southern part of the island for better butterfly population. To do this hire a speedboat from Lawui, Obi's largest town, at an overall charge of $150 per day which includes 2 crew. Using this method of transport you can circumnavigate Obi, you can stop off at settlements on the way, local residents will be more than happy to make a room available. In Obi you must be useful with Indonesian language or travel with a bilingual friend , nobody spoke English that I could find. Obi is famous for it's native bird population, tour groups are organized from Bali for keen birders
BUTTERFLY INCIDENCE
Overall butterfly fauna in northern Obi is very low, a days work often only produced 10 to 20 specimens with 3 people holding nets. Nightime work with a white sheet and genset running a 150watt blended mercury lamp was also very poor, very few moths or beetles. It was not until we tried a hill top location that things really improved. We caught many small moths along with Cossidae, Sphingidae and the occasional Batocera obiana landing on the sheet.
Southern Obi is a lot more productive, especially on the sides of the logging roads, close to the beach plenty of Danaidae. It was not unusual to see that most graceful of butterflies, Idea durveillei floating around in groups of 6 or more high up around the trees. I carried a 5 meter telescopic net, an essential piece of equipment at times.
The swamp areas in Southern Obi are the haunt of Ornithopter aesacus. We collected a few larvae and eggs, photos are attached.
Troides criton were quite numerous, though we sighted only males.
There was only one river system where we were able to catch Papilio ulysses, that was in north Obi, about 5 miles to the west of Lawui.
I would be really keen to travel the logging roads to the foothills, this would be the place for Nymphalidae and maybe Delias, that will have to wait till next time.
We also tried low elevation night work at South Obi too, very poor results, although we did get phasmidae searching by torch light. Altitude of 200 meters or more I'm sure would be a different story.
Overall Obi is quite high up on the difficulty scale, getting there is a long tedious trip. Once there you need to hire a speedboat for travel to south Obi. Rain is an issue too, we were holed up a couple of times. The people are religious which ever faith they follow, so you have to take this into account, for example I stayed in a Christian village, there was no work on Sunday or Saturday or Monday afternoons, these times were taken up with church attendance. People are very friendly and will open up their homes to you. So it is a different world, the values we have in the big city are different here, somehow it is good for me to go travel to places like this. No TV, no Internet, couldn't even make a phone call at times, being close to nature, good for the soul, whichever continent you happen to be on.
Jungle habitat of Ornithoptera aesacus
Egg and larva of Ornithoptera aesacus
Aristolochiae host plant for O.aesacus
I purchased this pair from a local breeder. No adult wild stock are caught
