What is Vashti

The ‘Ramsgate Piper’ Butterfly

ramsgate piper butterfly

E. vashti (MS), Eurytela hiarbas f.vashti

The name ‘vashti’ was taken from the Bible, the book of Esther Chapter 1: 9 through to Chapter 2: 4. Here the Queen Vashti refused a command from her king on two separate occasions to appear in her queen’s headdress and her natural beauty before the people, so that they could admire her and praise their king. This refusal led the king to choosing another wife, named Esther, and banishing queen Vashti into exile. Our butterfly, Eurytela vashti (ms) is a very beautiful butterfly that, just like Queen Vashti, refuses to act according to the norm of the Eurytela family and is elusive, hiding herself in the undergrowth of the Ibilanghlolo Valley.

Discovery Of Vashti

In the Namphalidae Family of butterflies is the Genus called EURYTELA consisting of two butterfly Species found on the South Coast of KZN.
Which one have you seen? (See Below)

The first four pics display the upperside view of the butterfly’s wings and the second set of pics display the underside views. e.g. Pic 1. is the top side and pic 1a is the underside of pic 1

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  1. & 1a. This is the first common species found throughout Southern Africa, of the Genus Eurytela called dryope angulata in which the yellow-orange band will vary in thickness from specimen to specimen. This is referred to as a variatype. On the underside, the orange marking does not permeate through the wing as seen in 1a.
  1. & 2a. This second species also found throughout Southern Africa is also very common, of the Genus Eurytela called hiarbas angustata in which the white band does not vary in thickness from specimen to specimen. On the underside, the white marking does permeate through the wing as seen in 2a.
  1. & 3a. This butterfly is believed to be a form of the second species found only on the South Coast, KZN and in dense forests of GAUTENG is extremely rare, of the Genus Eurytela called hiarbas angustata f. Flavescens, in which the yellow-orange band does not vary in thickness from specimen to specimen. On the underside, the yellow-orange marking does permeate through the wing as seen in 3a.
  2. & 4a. This butterfly is also believed to be a form of the second species found only on the South Coast of KZN and is extremely rare, of the Genus Eurytela called hiarbas angustata f. vashti in which the red-brick-brown band does not vary in thickness from specimen to specimen. On the underside, the red-brick-brown marking does permeate through the wing as seen in 4a.

Discovery of Vashti

The discovery of the ‘Ramsgate Piper’ Eurytela vashti (MS)
Discovery of the first male of Eurytela vashti (ms), led us to the investigation of the Eurytela Genus. The first specimen seen and captured was in the “Ibilanghlolo Valley” along the “Little Billy” river on the 14th April 2002 by E. Whiteley. (Ref:1593 to 1594 of 2000 to 2003 Journal). This was a male (Eurytela vashti ms). E. Whiteley says: “I had never seen anything quite like this specimen, with its rustic brown wing band, found only on the hindwing upperside. I mistakenly identified this butterfly as Eurytela hiarbas angustata f. flavescens. Because of its poor condition I believed it to be an aberration of Eurytela hiarbas angustata f. flavescens. This specimen was darting in and out of the branchlets of the undergrowth near the existing lepidome, which we had first built.

Conservation of Butterflies in South Africa Research Material. (30th November 2002, by Earle Whiteley). Updated 2017.

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