Winged Beauties @ Endau Rompin (Selai) Part 3

The picture shows the common toilets just a few steps away from our huts. We were satisfied with the conditions of the toilets, providing us with very clean and refreshing water supplies from the river all the time.

This is Acytolepis puspa lambi (Common Hedge Blue), a very common Lycaenidae butterfly in Singapore as well. When this particular male was in flight, we could see his shimmering metallic blue uppersides like what you can see in this shot below.

Psolos fuligo fuligo (Coon) is a relatively large brown skipper with some obscure markings on the hindwings beneath. The posture is quite unique in the form of hunchback when it is at rest. It was spotted along the main forest trail not far away from the base camp.It flew quite slowly passing by me along the main trail, this Parantica melaneus sinopion (Chocolate Tiger) flapped its wings a few times before it perched on the tip of a climber, allowing me to have a glimpse of the uppersides which showed light yellowish patches near the abdomen area. This species is not found in Singapore.

One of the many Jay species that we can not find in Singapore, this Graphium chironides malayanum (Striped Jay) landed quite far from me. Instinctively, I snapped a quick shot and moved nearer but it flew off without giving me a chance for a 2nd shot.

Along a very shady forest trail towards the direction of the waterfalls, Mycalesis oroatis ustulata (Red Bush Brown) was spotted by Yong. Very hard to know which Bush Brown it was in the field. However, when it hopped around in the understory of the thick forest canopy, its reddish brown uppersides could be seen briefly.

It was a pity that most of us, except Yong, could not nail an upperside shot of this male Laringa castelnaui castelnaui, belonging to the Nymphalidae family. We were all awed by its very intense blue uppersides. The all blue uppersides were even more spectacular when it was basking in the the sun with open wings, though very briefly.This looks like a The Wavy Maplet (Chersonesia rahria rahria). It was found fluttering along the main forest trail at noon. Very skittish bugger, it did not rest long enough for me to take a better shot. Here is a record shot of its underside.

I was hoping to see some different Ring butterflies in ER. But what I encountered were mostly similar to these two very common species, Common Three Ring and Common Five Ring that we can find in Singapore. So I was quite disappointed and decided not to chase around the Ring butterflies after first day.

This is a Nacaduba species which I cannot identify based on a shot like this, especially so when this was shot in ER. Can you guess what it was feeding on ?Endau Rompin National Park occupies a large area of roughly 800 square km which is slightly larger that the Singapore main island. What we saw on ER during our short trip was just a tiny spot of it, like our USR in Singapore perhaps. There were a few waterfalls within walking distances from the base camp but due to time constraint we were not able to explore them. The Orang Asli who chit chatted with Yong and SC on the second night told us that he saw more butterflies in the month of August and September. This Orang Asli (pity that we did not take a picture of him) told us many interesting stories about how he was involved in helping the Japaneses, Europeans and researchers from the Malayan Nature Society doing field work such as catching and dissecting insects and other animals, counting and weighing elephant dungs etc. Thanks SC for doing the translations for me and BJ to enjoy his very rich life experiences.

Most alarmingly, he told us that just about two weeks ago, a tiger crossed the river and rested somewhere near where we stayed. I cannot imagine how we will react if we really encounter a tiger in front of us.

One of the highlights in this trip was that we had a cheap (RM$24 for six big durians) and superb delicious durian lunch around 3:30 pm before we bidded farewell to Bekok. This extraordinary meal was made possible by our 4WD driver.

On a concluding note, I must thank Yong for initiating and making this trip possible for us. Together with BJ and SC, I must also thank you all for being such wonderful shooting mates in the field (next time we must not forget to take a group picture with the Orang Asli guides).

Good bye ER and we will definitely meet again. But we hope you will remain unchanged in the long future as we can only recognise you in the way you are today.

Reference :
The Butterflies of The Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malayan Nature Society.