This one has long baffled me. I met it on Mr. Meron in June. It flew onto that fav trail of mine, and landed. I’d never seen it before, and with its wings tightly closed, I couldn’t see its upper (dorsal) surface. After much study of my Israeli butterfly field guides, and examination of butterfly images online, I think, maybe, that I can identify this challenger.

My present thinking is that this is a Hyponephele Iycaon libanotica, first named by Staudinger in 1901.

Why wasn’t I closer you might ask? I was shooting as usual with my Canon Macro- lens, and after capturing this image, I Ohhh so cautiously moved closer, only to have it . . .

Jeff