An Iridescent Dark Blue Butterfly

I have seen this rather large jungle butterfly several times over in the last month but each of my encounter has been without a camera. Today, was the day that I would finally capture this lovely butterfly with my camera as one crossed my path again. Without my trustworthy macro lens side-kick, I shot with a 300mm telephoto lens set to manual focus as I had discovered yielded pretty sharp photos.The Dark Blue Jungle Glory is a forest species that is quite rare. Although it has been observed from time to time in the nature reserves, nothing is known of its life history, or what host plant its caterpillars feed upon.

The undersides of this species bears cryptic patterns of various shades of brown. This camouflage renders the butterfly invisible when feeding on the forest floor amongst the dead leaves and other organic clutter.
This rather unassuming looking butterfly has the most amazing iridescent dark blue upper sides that never seem to take my breath away as it flashes by.
Most of the time, the butterfly prefers the deep forested areas, and keeping close to the ground. It is usually seen early the morning, which is usually the time I spot it or in the later hours of the day.