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June 07, 2008

Butterflies And Flowers Of Grand Villa Resort In Laguna

Besides the usual features found in every swimming pool resort in Laguna, the Grand Villa Resort and Butterfly Centre offers much more with beautiful botanical landscapes (lots of plants, trees, and ornamental shrubs) and their main attraction - the butterfly sanctuary, near the far end of the resort, before the adventure camp area.

As I said, this resort has some magnificent display of tended gardens and plant landscapes showcasing a variety of flowering plants and shrubs. Some of these are the colorful orchids featured at this mini-garden with a wooden shed in (which also doubles as a swing) in the middle.

Wooden garden swing and shed


White orchids


Reddish orange orchids

The butterfly garden was not yet fully open to public (or was still being maintained by the staff) when we arrived there. Some people emerging from the place told us to use the exit door to enter the garden (I'm confused there). So we entered through that door. We beheld in awe the enchanting surroundings that greeted us inside. There were lots of trees, flowering plants, shrubs, and ornaments all neatly arranged to make the enclosed garden look like a fairytale place.
Pathway in the butterfly garden


Unusually colored yellowish hibiscus or gumamela flower
I initially mistook most of these white and black spotted butterflies as the monarch butterflies until I later searched through google images similar to these. These are actually the Paper Kite butterflies.
An unmoving Paper Kite butterfly


Pair of mating paper kite butterflies


Paper kite and another butterfly sharing some flower nectar meal


Paper kite butterfly up close and personal
Meanwhile, the pair of mating butterflies below (a lot of them are actually doing this inside so that's why I could take pictures of them without bothering or scaring the butterflies away) are from the species of heliconiine butterflies, specifically the Leopard Lacewing.
Mating Leopard Lacewing butterflies
On the other hand, I am not so sure with the correct species of butterflies for the these two (another acrobatically mating) butterflies pictured below. I searched in the web and the nearest butterfly species I could tag the pair is the Ornithoptera priamus (the Cairns Birdwing butterflies). Am I right?
Cairns Birdwing butterflies

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