Tenerife pt 2, orchids and butterflies

 

While in Tenerife for most of December '24, I shot well over 8,000 photos (and videos). Here are a couple of early trips we did; first to the Orchid Garden in Puerto de la Cruz, and then to the butterfly house, the Mariposario, at Icod de los Vinos. 

Canarian speckled wood

The Orchid House in Sitio Litre is an aquired taste. It is a smallish walled garden with cafe, and costs 4.75 euros to enter. I have kept the tickets from each visit and now have 5 pairs. They are decorative and sedate, slightly eccentric and of an olde world appearance, very much like the gardens themselves. If you like water-slide theme parks and parachute jumps you probably won't like this garden. Sometimes it is almost too sedate for myself but there is usually something well worth the visit and I like the eccentric mix of orchids, crockery, weird tiles and visiting wildlife. Cats, lovebirds (permanent not visiting), butterflies and dragonflies. What's not to like?

large wooden fruit
(Pandanus utilis)

Why (I hear you ask) so few photos of orchids? They certainly have quite a collection, many looking very similar and nearly all in flower. Well, judging from the presentation (I have never asked, nor to be honest, cared) orchids must prefer very dim lighting and a lack of direct sunlight. They are displayed in positively dingy surroundings either side of a gloomy corridor of light-banishing enclosures. The flowers are lovely but the photos mostly come out shadowy and without much of the zest of the plants. Also I go there for the ambience and eccentricity rather than the orchids. The unusual tiles and dioramas rather than the greenery. Although the non-orchidy bits of garden are pleasant too. Which attracts dragonflies and butterflies (to a degree) and that is what attracts myself. Although you have to set your expectations to modest or below, in order to acclimatise to the lack of traditional spectacle. Do not go in expecting awesome. You will be disappointed.

dim corridor of orchid displays

don't think this artist ever saw someone playing the violin

The creators of this garden obviously had a leaning towards unusual tiles and crockery and have enhanced the concrete seating and wanderways with bizarre and anomalous ceramics. Not unlike pre-internet memes, many with captions and aphorisms. I find it hard not to take the same photos as I took last visit, and the one before that, in an ever descending spiral of nostalgic reflection.

I thought it would be a good project to try and get an item absorbed into the collection. There are models of sailing ships and old photos. Random shit. I meant to take along an item that would match the mental obscurity (or charm) of the gardens and place it where it might become assimilated into the garden and then next year, next visit, see if it was still there. It slipped my mind to get such an object but there's always next year, eh? If all this has the feeling of a quaalude dream then well, it will at least appeal to those that enjoy that sort of entertainment. I mean there should be alternatives for those that don't want to do the tethered parachute jump. (Although Mary and I nearly considered signing up for one after watching a couple of them land gently on the beach near where we were running.)

excellent sketching

200 years old according to the plaque?

for 50 cents or maybe 75 you get a bag of fishfood
to feed the enormous carp who seem far more brawn than brain

One of the draws for me was the pond. There is a tendency to find dragonflies arounds ponds although the exhibits change yearly and cannot be relied upon. Bumper crop on this occaision of 2 reds and a blue. The blue being a male epaulet skimmer in mint condition. The other 2 red jobs were a red-veined dropwing Trithemis arteriosa, and a scarlet skimmer. Or similar. The red-veined dropwing was a cracker but was keeping its distance. They were perching on rocks, obvs traumatised by the recent skelping the surrounding reeds/water based plants had had. They looked like they had been strimmed the day before giving fewer natural perching options for the dragonflies. 

red-veined dropwing
it was not coming over for much of a close up

scarlet skimmer? on strimmed reed stump.
better model (but no red-veins on wings)

eventually the epaulet skimmer moved onto a better perch

body comparison to see the difference between the 2 red jobs

some sort of mud-dauber wasp

on the way home we spotted this bird which is like a slight variant
of a blue tit and great tit, possibly an African blue tit.

atlantic canary

ring-necked parakeet

our first (of only 2 or 3) ice creams

tempted to buy this

The second trip is our visit to the butterfly house in Icod de los Vinos. It was about 40mins on a bus heading West and we decided to go there because the forecast was slightly cloudy for the day. It was still t-shirts and shorts weather and mostly blue skies but maybe a less suitable day for butterfly hunts outdoors. We had been here a couple of years ago but I had forgotten how outstanding it really is. If you are at all interested in large brightly coloured tropical butterflies and moths this is a fabulous place full of exotic specimens. With a couple of terrapins and lorikeets thrown in. All under the roof of a large spacious building full of tropical plants and light ambient music.

Icod de los Vinos means (I think) district of wines. First thing we did after getting off the bus was to go and have lunch. We generally got up early on holiday with Mary making porridge before 8am so towards midday we would be ready for lunch. Rather than spend a couple of hours round the butterfly house feeling hungry we ducked into a restaurant down the street from the Mariposario and had lunch and a beer. Did that account for our viewing pleasure? Maybe, but even sober on an empty stomach this place would have rocked. The staff are really knowledgeable. But the introductory chat is optional and on this occasion we didn't bother, having heard it 2 years ago. There is only one rule - no touching! That said, many of the butterflies (mainly blue morhpos) will land on you as you walk around. Especially if you are wearing blue. They ask that you check yourself for potential escapees before leaving!

glasswing

Indian Silk Moth recently emerged

blue morpho recently emerged

glasswings emerging

zebra longwing

Heliconius Ismenius

blue morpho wing close up

Heliconius ismenius

blue morpho

There were loads of Blue morphos. Perhaps the most numerous butterfly in the place. I wonder if someone had mistakenly ordered too many. However, due to them regularly landing on us, and their spectacular iridescent shimmer, they were possibly our favourites. Very eye-catching.

glasswing

bm on Mary's elbow

glasswing close up

large tree nymph
one of the larger more floaty specimens here

Colobura dirce

snake-mimicking caterpillar

close up of a blue morpho underwing

Colobura dirce

Indian silk moth

close up of scales on wing eyespot

live silk moths!

cattleheart
The red/blue patch changed colour as you changed point of view

from blue and pink to more like scarlet

zebra longwing

There is a quiet area downstairs where there are some large butterfly models in a darkened basement. It is almost a relief from the constantly moving spectacle going on upstairs and gives you a breather before returning to battle with all the amazing stuff upstairs. There is also a photo list of all the Tenerife species. Unfortunately it is not complete as I orginally thought - missing Lang's short-tailed blues and Geranium bronzes. However it has been one of the few places where something close to a comprehensive list of local butterflies can be found. Most years we tick off another one or 2. This year I saw 2 new Tenerife species: Southern Brown Argus, which we had seen on the last trip to Majorca, and the Striped hawk-moth from the bottom row, a spectacular cousin of the humming-bird hawk-moth (which we are yet to see here, but have seen in the UK and Spain.)

Dryas Julia

cattleheart

monarch

large tree nymph in flight
while 2 blue morphos perch on Mary's back

Tiger longwing, Heliconius hecale

blue morpho (underwing)

rainbow lorikeet

what time is it?
Blue Morpho time!

We both really enjoyed the Mariposario! Maybe there were more butterflies this time than last as I didn't remember it being quite so compelling. It is well worth a trip if you are on the island and enjoy this sort of thing. It is the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel version of hunting insects outdoors in real life but it is also an excellent way to enjoy some amazing species from central America and the Far East without travelling there, which I may never get round to. As a substitute for the real thing it is not a bad second and the place was superbly maintained by people who obviously care.

a mural in the Icod de los Vinos bus station

The video below was shot on the DJI pocket, which gives amazing results although the screen is so small (the whole thing is about the size of an electric toothbrush) that you (I) can't really see much on the tiny screen and so one is left guessing where exactly the lens is pointing. The stabilisation makes it really smooth and the quality is surprising from of something more like a toy than a piece of photographic equipment. Note the beardy staff guy in the last few seconds of the video who is wearing a lorikeet like a lapel badge! 😊