West Africa’s Butterfly Eden

Many countries in Africa boast impressive lists of butterflies but it is certain that nowhere are they more visible than in Ghana. This is especially true of magnificent Bobiri, a tiny forest reserve that is already known to harbour in excess of five hundred species of butterfly.

A walk along Bobiri’s track is a bewildering experience as clouds of mud-puddling Whites and Yellows take flight while abundant Swallowtails and pure gold or red Gliders show off their stunning colours every step one walks. There are the lovely ‘Mother-of-Pearls’, huge fragile-looking butterflies with pearly wings imbued with pinks or purples, as well as elegantly tailed Swordtails and the gorgeous Electric Green Swallowtail. Charaxes blaze past us, they are such fast flyers, but presented with mongoose or genet dung (often on the tracks!) these Ferrari’s of the butterfly world become tame and photographable. Even these large and colourful butterflies can’t hold a candle to that signature group of Ghana’s butterflies, the Euphaedras or Foresters.

Expect over twenty species adorned in all manner of brilliant colours, from the red, black and white Edward’s Forester to the blue-green Magnificent Forester, and from the Western Striped Forester, shot through with pinks and greens, to the intricately-patterned Crocker’s Forester.

The butterflies and indeed birds are hardly less diverse among the wooded hills and waterfalls of the Akwapim Togo Ranges and in magical Ankasa National Park which protects some of the continent’s finest Evergreen High Rainforest. From Ankasa’s wide tracks we can watch golden Lurid Gliders and Blood Red Cymothoes sail past Lesser Spot-nosed Monkeys and Olive Colobuses. There are no less than nine species of primate found here, and the current butterfly list has passed six hundred species! Black Bee-eaters, Emerald Cuckoo and the lovely Blue Cuckoo-Shrike are among a panoply of brilliantly-coloured birds – a profusion of Hornbills, Kingfishers, Malimbes and Sunbirds. Mimicry is common among Ghana’s butterflies, from the giant Mocker Swallowtails right down to the tiny Similar Yellow, a striking grass yellow-mimic. Hanging from twigs we’ll see fragile Liptenids such as black and red Western Telipna and delicate Vane-Wright’s Glasswing whose shadowed wings have large black spots in the centre.
There are stunning beetles, shimmering damselflies, and always more butterflies; Harlequins, Fairy Hairstreaks and Playboys…