Two Worlds

A blog about UK housing, Latin America, migration and the environment

  • Home
  • Housing
  • Migration
  • Housing and migration publications
  • About
  • Contact
You are here: Home > Latin America > The Masaya Volcano’s amazing butterflies

The Masaya Volcano’s amazing butterflies

February 20, 2013

Caligo telamonius (photo: Hilary Erenler)

Caligo telamonius (photo: Hilary Erenler)

Here are some slightly surprising figures.  In the whole of the British Isles, there are currently 59 known species of butterfly.  In the national park that covers the Masaya volcano, the edge of which is a kilometre or two from our farm, so far over 180 species of butterfly have been identified.  The park covers a mere 54 square kilometres. 

I know this through my friends Hilary Erenler and Michael Gillman, butterfly experts from (respectively) Northampton University and the Open University, who have been studying the park’s butterflies for several years.  They have recently published a provisional report on their work (pdf), jointly with one of the park wardens, Erico Tellez Jimenez.

Slightly taking advantage of their expertise, I’ve invited them to look at our own range of butterflies and prepare a list for the farm, which in two short visits already has 36 entries.  Several of the species coincide with those in the national park, including the two pictured here.

Siproeta stelenes (photo: Hilary Erenler)

Siproeta stelenes (photo: Hilary Erenler)

Although the farm offers nothing like the range of habitats found in the park, it does have one feature that the park lacks: a steep sided valley, known locally as a ‘quebrada’, which is normally dry but carries a fast-flowing current of water down to the lagoon (and into the park) when the heavy storms of the wet season occur.  This valley, which we have to clamber down into and up out of to visit the far side of the farm, is perpetually damp, even at the height of the dry season.  It’s here that the diversity of butterfly species (and indeed other animals) is greatest.  One particularly unusual butterfly (not pictured) has transparent wings, and there appears to be a permanent colony of them at one spot in the quebrada.

As an extremely amateur naturalist, I find that the advantage of butterflies (as opposed to, say, mammals) is that they are very easy to spot. Many of them are also amazingly attractive, including the large-winged species like the Caligo (pictured) and the beautiful pale blue Morpho.  We are slowly learning about what they eat, to preserve their feeding sites and maintain or increase the farm’s biodiversity.

Category: Latin America, Central America wildlife | Tags: Nicaragua, butterflies

« Previous Next »

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Two Worlds blog and we'll send you an email alert when we publish a new post. Please review our Privacy Policy if you have any questions or concerns.

Categories

  • Housing
  • Migration
  • Latin America
  • Masaya project updates
  • Energy and the environment
  • Central America wildlife
  • Book reviews
  • Obituaries

Tags

allocations ALMOs Amazon river Argentina armadillos asylum beds in sheds Berta Cáceres birds Bolivar borrowing rules Bosawás Brazil budget butterflies caribbean census chile climate change Colombia community cohesion coronavirus Costa Rica council housing Covid-19 Cuba daily life destitution dictators drugs economics Ecuador El Salvador energy efficiency env environment Green Deal Guatemala Gypsies and Travellers Haiti homelessness homeownership Honduras housing housing associations housing benefit housing finance housing i housing investment housing market housing policy hum human rights iguanas immigration checks India Indigenous people inequality integration interoceanic canal investment Ireland Latin America Latin writers local authorities Malvinas Masaya media Mexico migration migration policy migration statistics mining model cities Nicaragua Nicaragua crisis Nicaraguan elections Northern Ireland outsourcing panama Paraguay pension funds planning private rented sector public transport race refugees regeneration rents right to buy right to rent Scotland sloths slums solar energy Spain Spanish conquest stock transfer syria tenancy reform tenant involvement transport ukraine US intervention Venezuela Vista Alegre volcanoes welfare reform

Blogroll

  • Blogs for the London Review of Books
  • Articles for The Guardian
  • Blogs for Open Democracy
  • Blogs for Council on Hemispheric Affairs
  • Articles for Counterpunch
  • Articles for The Grayzone
  • Articles for NACLA
  • Posts for Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
  • Articles for Global Research
  • Articles for LA Progressive
  • Two Worlds on Substack

Related websites

  • Chartered Institute of Housing
  • Housing Rights
  • Leicester Masaya Link Group
  • Council on Hemispheric Affairs
  • UK Housing Review
Housing Guardian contributor

Admin

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
John Perry John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on
UK housing and migration issues and writes about those
and other topics covered in this blog.
Copyright © 2012- Two Worlds. Privacy & Cookie Policy. Powered by WordPress and Hybrid.