Whoever gave this butterfly—frequent all through a lot of Asia—its English title will need to have had a way of humour. Lepidoptery was up to now a favoured pastime of members of the clergy and the embarassment of getting to say or write the title should prompted a shudder to these narrow-minded nonconformists who reserved the title for ‘fallen’ ladies and even these noticed on the street carrying lipstick. The strictures of the clergy had been adopted by the ‘respectable’ man on the street. Certainly, fathers of my mom’s era had been adamant that their daughters weren’t going out on the street carrying make up, ‘like a painted jezebal’.
This Painted Jezebel (Delias hyparete) sat nonetheless lengthy sufficient to be photographed by AJP north of Tai Po within the New Territories of Hong Kong final week.
