"...self propelled flowers." - R.H. Heinlein

Junonia almana, the peacock pansy | Chitwan, September 2012

In 2012 we* were helping two adjoining contiguous community forests - Setidevi and Gyaneshwor Community Forest in Mangalpur, Chitwan to prepare a check-list of mammals, birds and butterflies. Our aim was to help them conserve their biodiversity and promote eco-tourism. We recorded mammals using camera-traps, transects, sign surveys, and live sightings; birds with the help of expert birders; and the elusive dancing butterflies were captured on photographs and identified.

I took this photo during one of my many excursions. I was originally thinking about adding a pinch of scientific facts to accompany this beautiful frolicking peacock pansy  but alas, akin to the fellow in the photograph I too couldn't resist wandering around the realm of the internet. Somehow I ended up in butterfly quotes section.... Here are some I really loved.

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."

 - Hans Christian Andersen

I've watched you now a full half-hour;

Self-poised upon that yellow flower

And, little Butterfly!  Indeed

I know not if you sleep or feed.

How motionless! - not frozen seas

More motionless! and then

What joy awaits you, when the breeze

Hath found you out among the trees,

And calls you forth again! 

 - William Wordsworth, "To a Butterfly"

And what's a butterfly? At best,
He's but a caterpillar, at rest.

- John Grey

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.  

- Author Unknown

Moss covered paths between scarlet peonies,

Pale jade mountains fill your rustic windows.

I envy you, drunk with flowers,

Butterflies swirling in your dreams.

- Ch'ien Ch'i, translated by Kenneth Rexroth

The butterfly is a flying flower,

The flower a tethered butterfly.

- Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

- Rabindranath Tagore

The butterfly long loved the beautiful rose,

And flirted around all day;

While round him in turn with her golden caress,

Soft fluttered the sun's warm ray....

I know not with whom the rose was in love,

But I know that I loved them all.

The butterfly, rose, and the sun's bright ray,

The star and the bird's sweet call.

  - Heinrich Heine, "A New Spring," 1826, translated from German by Charles Godfrey Leland

* The mammal, bird and butterfly check-list survey was a voluntary initiative of Friends of Nature (FON Nepal)