Mother nature gave us a gift for all of the ladies on Hive.
A rare live White-barred Charaxes butterfly (Charaxes brutus natalensis).
Never could I have imagined such a lovely gift, and in addition, our beautiful, Curly Locks, (Echeveria shaviana) plant, decided to bloom on this day. So, I will show you both in here, and we hope that you will accept it as a Valentine gift from 
Apparently, there are a few sub-species of the charaxes, and I have placed our South African one in bold.
Subspecies
The following subspecies are recognised:
C. b. brutus (Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, western Nigeria)
C. b. alcyone Stoneham, 1943 (Kenya: east of Rift Valley, northern and eastern Tanzania)
C. b. angustus Rothschild, 1900 (Eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, Northern Angola, Zaire, West Uganda)
C. b. natalensis Staudinger, 1885 (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania)
C. b. roberti Turlin, 1987 (Pemba Island)
It came flying past and I watched it land on a branch.
Ever so gently I started to encourage it to climb onto my hand. Not easy, as I took the photos with my camera in my other hand.
Come baby, come I softly whispered.
Voila! An excited feeling to actually have a charaxes butterfly on my hand.
Go baby go, and as it flew away, a sad thought came to me that some people would use such an opportunity to catch the butterfly, and to put it in a clear plastic bag, in order to add it to their butterfly collection.
Right and now let's have a look at this gift below.
It is a "Curly Locks" plant, and it is in full bloom.
Pink, orange, red, and all rising from a green succulent base plant.
And so, this is a Valentine's gift for everyone and know that Mother Nature loves you. Her wonderful gifts are like no others, and they are free to enjoy. Never before could I get a Charaxes on my hand, and so it was a very special occasion. This species used to be consigned to the sub-tropical East Coast and Northern Escarpment, but now they have spread rapidly to cities as far afield as Cape Town and Gauteng. It is only my second time now to get a Charaxes on camera, and it just shows how special this Valentine's Day is.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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