COVER N. 343 - SRI LANKA

Postmark: Headquarters PO Colombo 27.10.2023

Posted on the 27th October; received on the 8th November 2023

_________________________________________________________________________________

I Love all things that fly and butterflies (as well as dragonflies and damselflies and coleopters and... you name it, I like it....) rank high on the list.

In fact it is not only the sheer lightness of their flight, the graceful flapping of their wings... it's the wings themselves, most of the times. Absolute wonders of creation: intricate patterns, amazing colour combinations, outlandish shapes... all of this can be found in these lovely little (and not so little) insects that today in many parts of the world have to fight for their place amidst habitat destruction, pesticide use, climate change and so on....

Ravindra keeps surprising me with amazing covers full of interesting stamps, and this time he chose some of my favourite members of the animal kingdom.  Thank you so much, Ravindra!

 

I have already noted here that Sri Lanka is a biodiversity hotspot, so it comes as no surprise that of the 248 species of butterflies which can be found in the country, 31 are endemic.

12 of them have been included in 3 butterfly shaped souvenir sheets issued on 01DEC2022, which Ravindra has kindly and generously sent me on three different covers.

I know nothing about Sri Lankan Butterflies, of course, but I found a blog which has plenty of interesting information on fauna and flora of the island State so, whenever possible, I'll link each butterfly species to its page on it, or to a Wikipedia entry.

Further to the souvenir sheet, the cover has two more butterfly stamps that are part of one of the other souvenirs sheets which will be presented in their corresponding blog entries. Still I'll link these particular stamps to their butterfly description here too, for the sake of clarity.

 

Souvenir sheet:

10 Rupees - Sri Lanka Tiger (Parantica taprobana)

20 Rupees - Pale Ceylon Six-Line Blue (Nacaduba sinhala)

25 Rupees - Sri Lanka Bushbrown (Mycalesis rama)

30 Rupees - Tricolor Pied Flat (Coladenia tissa)

Extra stamps:

50 Rupee - Sri Lanka Indigo Royal (Tajuria arida)

100 Rupees - One-spot Grass Yellow (Eurema ormistoni)

As usual with Ravindra's covers, the postmark indicates that they were dispatched from the central PO at Colombo.