A Cabbage White butterfly offers itself to a receptive mate on a spring-time afternoon in the high Himalaya, close to the tree-line. It pokes its thorax outwards in an attempt to mate.
Butterflies forage on Daphne bholua flowers in Uttarakhand state of India. The Large Cabbage White (Pieris brassicae) is the white butterfly with one spot when the wings are shut and the inners of the wings are lined black at the tip.
The Indian Cabbage White (Pieris canidia), with its wings open, has two dots when the wings are open, and a black edging along the tips of the wings. When the wings are shut, it looks similar to the Large Cabbage White.
One can also see the beautiful Dark Clouded Yellow (Colias fieldii) which has a yellow patch on the upper wing with a prominent 2 + 1 dot pattern.
The last butterfly one can see is the Indian Tortoiseshell (Aglais cashmiriensis) butterfly.
Daphne bholua (Nepalese paper plant) is a species of flowering shrub in the genus Daphne of the family Thymelaeaceae. It grows at altitudes of 1,700–3,500 m (5,577–11,483 ft) in the Himalayas and neighbouring mountain ranges, from Nepal to southern China. At lower altitudes it is found as an evergreen in thickets and forest margins; at higher altitudes, it is deciduous and is usually found in pastures and grassy glades. It usually reaches a height of about 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in), though some specimens reach 4 m (13 ft) or more.
Daphne bholua has leathery leaves and deep pink flowers with a powerful fragrance, and a number of named cultivars have been bred and are grown as garden plants in Europe and North America.
D. bholua has a wide range in the Himalayas and adjoining ranges, from Nepal through Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Vietnam, into Sichuan and north-west Yunnan.
In Nepal, the plant's common name is "baruwa"; in Tibet it is "chu chu".
Source : Wikipedia
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection o
