Psyche

Description:

Pieridae; Pierinae; Anthocharini; Leptosia; Leptosia nina georgi Fruhstorfer, 1910. This is a very nervous little butterfly. They can be seen flying erratically, at low level, between small flowering plants and rarely stay on one flower for more than a second or two. I can't understand how they can expend so much energy when they seem to allow themselves so little time to sip some nectar. When I first encountered this species, a few years ago, I could never get any decent photos, but I eventually realised that they move less rapidly (and spend a little longer at each stop) early in the morning, before the sun warms everything up.

Habitat:

Spotted in our front garden early in the morning after a night of heavy rain. it was visiting Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) and sundry other small plants.

Notes:

Leptosia nina georgi is the ssp. present in the northern Philippines. It does not have the black spot on the forewing mentioned in Wikipedia (that is only on L. nina).