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Purple Tip Butterfly
This butterfly can be found throughout the year and is usually seen flying along clearings in the forest. The butterflies feed on the nectar-rich flowers, while the caterpillars feed on the leaves of the bush-cherry and woolly caper bush.
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Painted Lady
The most common butterfly at Zimbali, seen on the lawns and in other open areas where there are plenty of daisies in flower. These areas are ideal places to watch butterflies breeding.
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Milkwood
This common butterfly is seen all over Zimbali especially in the more open spaces where its larval food plant is abundant. The males and females are very similar, the males have four spots on the rear wing while the females have three spots. Predators avoid the Milkwood due to its unpleasant taste.
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Mocker Swallowtail
This butterfly is a forest dweller, the males are more vibrantly marked than females. The larval foods for the mocker swallowtail include citrus trees and the knobwood tree.
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Green-banded Swallowtail
Another of the butterflies that lays its eggs on the leaves of the citrus family, this species is more of a forest dweller and is very active in the summer months.
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Smoky Orange Tip
More often seen during the winter months, this butterfly feeds on the nectar of forest creepers and flowers. The host plants for its caterpillar are the common bush cherry and the caper bush.
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Christmas Butterfly
A common sighting during most of the year, this black and pale yellow butterfly is also known as the citrus swallowtail or orange dog. The female is larger than the male and has orange around the anterior blue spots of her hind wings, as apposed to the males' yellow.
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Blue-spotted Charaxes
The fast-mover of the butterfly kingdom, this species is often seen speeding through the gaps in the canopy of the large forest trees at Zimbali. The flashes of pale blue stand out against the greens of the forest, making the males very conspicuous for the females.
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Small Striped Swordtail
This butterfly reaches the southernmost limit of its distribution just south of Durban, Zimbali is one of the last remaining strongholds of the species.
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Blue Pansy
The male species needs space to display its coloured markings to any female in the vicinity and will therefore defend an open sunny patch from all corners.
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