Encounter: Stream Glory, a dazzling tropical damselfly

A day of tired wandering in a forest ends with an intimate rendezvous with a stunning damselfly. It's often the little things in life that give you the biggest highs...


After almost a full day's walk along the Chalakudy river on an abandoned tramway, seeing nothing much but a few birds high up on teak trees, perspiring all over thanks to the humidity, we ended our trek in the forest guest house somewhere deep within Parambikulam Wildlife sanctuary. The Chalakudy river spread out over a wide, rocky terrain next to the guest house, and we decided to take a dip. Little did we know that we would spend quality time with a couple of lifers, as we got into the stream to cool off...

I have already blogged about the first lifer, the Common Albatross butterfly, here. Now let me tell you about another strikingly beautiful insect. As I kept my camera on a rock and lowered myself into the water, I saw a gleam of metallic blue-green on a rock textured with dried algae, right next to me. A closer observation revealed a strikingly beautiful, sleek damselfly.

I stepped to the other side of the damselfly to take a better look at it and photograph it with the sun behind my back, and I was surprised to discover that it wasn't really blue-green. It was a dazzling metallic emerald green, with incredible patterns in green, copper and gold on its wings. Later, we would identify the stunning damselfly as a male Stream Glory (Neurobasis chinensis).

The Stream Glory is a common resident in forest streams, and the female looks a rather dull version of the male. Unfortunately, though I did see her, she didn't oblige to my request for a photoshoot. The male was very cooperative and I spent almost 15 minutes photographing him, until my calf muscles started cramping up from standing in waist-deep water for so long, and I got out of the river just as the light faded. 


First the albatrosses, then the stream glory. What an evening!


Text and photos by Sandeep Somasekharan

Encounter - Common Albatross, a butterfly with civic sense!

I always thought only humans queued up, and that too occasionally when they have no choice. Ah... and ants. But on our very eventful tramway trek in Parambikulam, Kerala, we experienced an epiphany. And the evidence of such orderly behaviour came from an unexpected group of insects: Butterflies. 


Halfway into our tiring 18-km walk along the abandoned tramway used by the British to transport teakwood, we decided to stop for lunch at the rocky edge of the Chalakudy River. As we wolfed down the humble idlis packed from Hotel Lakshmi (Parambikulam's answer to five-star dining) we saw a train of white butterflies fluttering by upstream in a very orderly sine wave, one behind the other. One group would constitute the crest, the other the trough, alternating the altitude as they moved ahead. Soon, we found that it was by no means a small group. The sine wave seemed to be unending as the flow of butterflies continued until we finished our lunch and got up to walk the rest of the trail.

The sine wave 

As we walked downriver we saw more butterflies moving in the same orderly sine wave or hovering over rocky islands in chaotic congregations. We still could not identify them as they were constantly on the move, not even stopping to feed. We continued on our walk to the guest house that would shelter us that night. After dumping our backpacks there, we walked down to the river to freshen up.

Chaos theory in practice!

Here, we noticed a group of these butterflies mud-puddling. Getting closer, we angled for photographs, standing in the water wearing little but our modesty. The butterflies had white upper-wings, duller under-wings and a black tip to the upper wings that was faintly discernible in some individuals. On being disturbed, they would float up like paper bits caught up in a miniature whirlwind, swirling upwards and settling down elsewhere.

The origin of chaos

Later, upon visiting the information centre at Parambikulam, we would learn that the butterfly was the Common Albatross (Appias albina), which belongs to the Pieridae family. After spending quality time with the albatrosses, we enjoyed a refreshing bath and immersed ourselves in other encounters, which are better told as separate stories.

Incoming - paper plane!

Photos by Sandeep Somasekharan. Text by Sandeep and Bijoy