Seletar Wasteland 3 Jan 2009 Part 2 - Fauna

The number of dragonflies I saw today was more than other times when I was here. Perhaps this was due to a partially cloudy morning. There were quite a few of this red-winged dragonflies, Neurothemis fluctuans resting on grass blades.Next, I was lucky to spot this skittish Orthetrum testaceum pair. Even though they were in this intimate position, I could never get closer to them. Next came the red-bodied one (Orthetrum testaceum). It was resting on a dry leaf at my eye level and apparently its sexual partner was not far away from it (?). [Answer is no, this is another speicies Trithemis aurora as pointed out by Ian, thanks.] This was another active guy Agrionoptera insignis who preferred a twig. The catch of the day must be this cruel scene. One dragonfly became the prey of another dragonfly Orthetrum sabina, first time seeing this. The only damselfly I encountered was this white-bodied, low and slow-flying one. I have never seen this species before - perhaps this is a rare one ? [this is a juvenile of Copera marginipes]. Photographing it was a challenge as it preferred a shady perch and the whites on the body got burnt easily.I spotted this strange-looking spider near the entrance.The two eyes look scary. I will try to ID the DF species later. [Thanks Ian for providing the above IDs].

I am better at identifying butterfly species. Normally a fast-flying and alert Pierinae buttefly, Catopsilia pomona pomona (Lemon Emigrant) is seldom photography-friendly in the wild. I was very lucky to find this one resting on a grass blade in a shade.
These are two unattractive but very common butterflies in grassy and wasteland areas. The first dark brown butterfly with prominent eye-spots called ocelli on the underside of both wings is Orsotriaena medus cinerea (Nigger) .I am not 100% sure of the identification of this Mycalesis speices as there are a few similar speices in Singapore. This one is closer to Mycalesis mineus macromalayana (Dark Brand Bush Brown).
Though this was my first sighting of Pieris canidia canidia (Cabbage White) at this place, encountering this skittish white beauty here was not a surprise to me as the larval host plant Cleome rutidosperma is a common weed.

Perhaps with the help of a cooling weather and intermittent sunshine, I was able to stay there long enough to record many species of flora and fauna in this long strip of wasteland.

Other confirmed butterfly speicies sighted from 10 - 1 pm were :
1. Chilasa clytia clytia (Common Mime)
2. Papilio demoleus malayanus (Lime Butterfly)
3. Papilio polytes romulus (Common Mormon)
4. Graphium sarpedon luctatius (Common Bluebottle)
5. Leptosia nina malayana (Psyche)
6. Appias libythea olferna (Striped Albatross)
7. Junonia hedonia ida (Chocolate Pansy)
8. Junonia atlites atlites (Grey Pansy)
9. Junonia almana javana (Peacock Pansy)
10.Junonia orithya wallacei (Blue Pansy)
11.Cethosia cyane (Leopard Lacewing)
12.Jamides celeno aelianus (Common Caerulean) and
some orange and brown colour skippers.