The Purple Sapphire Butterfly And Spiny Spiders

I photographed this Purple Sapphire butterfly/Heliophorus epicles on an arum leaf in my parents’ backyard. From the group Lycaenidae (Blues), it’s a pretty common sight in gardens in my hometown, I’d often seen it on the tomato patch usually in the afternoons. Looking at the picture, one might think…but where’s the purple? It gets its name from the flash of purple on the upper surface of  the wings. The one pictured below was taken last year. Most of them look like that with wings open. There’s a slight variation in colour. my favourite bug website http://www.thaibugs.com has some great images of the different colour combinations.
There are many hoverflies during this season and as I tried to get a decent picture, I noticed, what looked like a Purple Sapphire, trapped in the clutches of a common garden spider. This area was heavily webbed!:) I imagined all the denizens to be in various stages of  being either hungry or satiated!
The kiss of death!But look, who’s playing peek-a-boo? It’s a colourful spiny spider (Gateracantha sp.) who’s checking out the tender betel nut tree.That yellow and the spiny ends surely makes it an eye-catcher!Here’s another one in full spiny regalia suspended from its sturdy www! It’s only during the rainy season that all kinds of bugs are seen all across the area. And in a dry garden seemingly devoid of any form of life, I was happy to get these images.