Butterflies on the Roof of the World by Peter Smetacek

Author:Peter Smetacek [Smetacek, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mobilism
Publisher: Aleph Book Company-India
Published: 2014-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Swordtails and Cabbage Whites

Lepidopterists are often fanatical in their pursuit of whatever species they specialize in. During the mid 1980s, a Japanese lepidopterist came to stay with us. He was a butterfly specialist, and cared nothing for moths. Soon after his arrival, he went through the butterflies in our displayed collection to familiarize himself with the local fauna. After that, he carefully examined every butterfly we had, whether pinned or in paper folders. Giving in to his persistence, I had dug out a box in which there were butterflies and other insects collected in the course of my wanderings. They were random samples—each trip’s material in a separate bag—which I had promised myself I would go through and sort out some idle winter’s day. Fortunately for him, that day had not come. Overjoyed, he disappeared into his room after lunch with that ancient cardboard box and its dried plastic packets of dried insects and did not appear for the rest of the day.

There were other guests to be looked after and I was supervising the early dinner of five or six children around a large round table when suddenly, our Japanese guest rushed into the room. Unable to contain his excitement, he pointed at me and exclaimed, ‘You have glycerion!’ There was an uneasy shifting of chairs as the children and their mothers edged away from me. What was a glycerion? Was it contagious? They searched my face hard for any outward signs of the malady, even as I tried to grasp the import of what he was telling me.

Graphium glycerion or, as it was then called, Pathysa glycerion, was a species known from Nepal eastwards to northeast India, where I had not been at the time. How had it managed to get into that box? Had I caught it? If so, why had I not recognized it?

Observing the uncomprehending expression on my face, he ran back to his room and reappeared with the packet in hand. I took it from him and read ‘Auli, 2,500 m, May 1982’ in my handwriting. In the background, I could not help notice the palpable sense of relief as the other guests discovered that glycerion was merely a butterfly.

The mystery soon explained itself. Pathysa glycerion is almost identical to what, at the time, we called Pathysa eurous caschmirensis. The only difference between the two species is that on the underside of the lower wing, there is a chain of black-edged yellowish spots in eurous, which is reduced to two in glycerion. In all other respects, they are indistinguishable at first glance. Both are called Swordtails, referring to the sword-like extension of the lower wing. Pathysa eurous is called the Six Bar Swordtail, while Pathysa glycerion is called the Spectacle Swordtail owing to the two yellow spots that resemble spectacles. Not expecting glycerion, I had taken the butterfly for eurous caschmirensis, which was known from the Western Himalaya.

Now that I began thinking of it, I vividly remembered taking that butterfly. A German friend had come down and decided that we were going trekking.

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