Congratulations @ninadsr for the observation of the Blue-bordered Plane. I could not find any documentation of the Blue-bordered Plane from the Pune district on ifoundbutterflies and inaturalist.
Let's Choose this as an observation of the Month for May 2022.
Sorry for the delay of a couple of months in posting the 'observation of the month.'
It was an obvious choice and also got maximum votes. One can imagine the Joy of Ninad when he spots that beauty. Especially when he was aware that this was potentially the first record of the Blue-bordered Plane from the Pune district. Ninad explores the new places around Pune for butterflies and has documented 170+ species from the Pune district. The exploration is really fruitful to see such documentation.
Apart from Blue bordered plane, there is one more special observation, Yamfly from Tamhini by @bhagwatn and @swanand. The Tamhini never disappoints and continues to give mesmerizing sightings. Yamfly is documented after almost a decade.
Tamhini still has sightings of black prince Awl, back angle chestnut Angle, Golden Angle, narrow banded blue bottle, and so on.
In May 2022, there were only 250 observations of 75 species with one new addition to the checklist of the Pune district. The most observed butterfly is Pioneer. It was observed in Pisaware, Lohegaon, Nigadi, KV Dehu road, and Dhayari. Some of us also documented the egg laying of Pioneer.
@bhagwatn tops the list of observers as he documented at various places this month, @swanand is second with only one walk at Tamhini, and @pavandamoor is in the third position. Only 18 observers uploaded the observations of butterflies from the Pune district on inaturalist in May 2022.
Let's keep uploading our butterfly observations on citizen science platforms.
Happy Butterflying.

Congratulations @dhananjay_kothawale, for the observation of the Sunbeam caterpillar in the school. It is the first time we are documenting the sunbeam life cycle observation on the inaturalist from the school premises in the Pune district. Also, one can see the classroom in the background, which makes it fun to see how near students can observe the life cycle of butterflies in the school.
Let's Choose this as an observation of the Month for June 2022.
There are multiple sunbeam caterpillar observations from the same premises this month, as other teachers and students also documented the same specimen. Indeed they also observed the pupae. It was the only one with a school and students going to a classroom in the background.
Was there any competition for butterfly observation of the month to this beauty? Indeed yes! Let's discuss them starting with the new addition to the inaturalist checklist. Tinsel! Yes, Tinsel is the new butterfly in the district. @ninadsr @mandarn observed it in the Tamhini region. It's great to see that, still new butterflies are getting added to the checklist and such rare beauties are present in our district.
Apart from Tinsel, there is no new addition this month. However, Tamhini continues to mesmerize us with butterflies. @ninadsr @mandarn also observed Chocolate Albatross on Lea in Tamhini. @pavandamoor observed the Orchid Tit again, this time nectoring on Lea. @jayantdeshpande and @himanshupandav documented four Angled Pierrot nectoring on a single bunch of lea flowers.
Not only the lea plant but also Hibiscus from Tamhini was attracting butterflies as we see the Redhelen and blue Mormon nectoring observations on Hibiscus. @jayantdeshpande and @himanshupandav observed Money Puzzle's courtship behavior. The pair faces each other and keeps circling each other. Six Tricolour Pied Flat out of nine observations are from this month.
What about ARAI if Tamhini is giving this result? @mandarn observed Crimson Tip mating pair at ARAI hill region. @gaurikarlekar observed the Spotswardtail in the Singhagad valley.@himanshupandav observed Dark Cerulean ovipositing on the orchid. @naturalist52570 observed 3 Bright Babul Blue on a single stick and used @savita's phone as a background for the observation.

Total of 282 covering 82 species with many special observations documented this June 2022. Lead observers are @himanshupandav, @mandarn, @jayantdeshpande, and @bhagwatn with 40+ observations each.

Happy butterflying!