A Short Afternoon Walk in CCA

Of course, 9 Aug is a special day for Singapore and Singaporeans, our National Day. This day is also the Birth Day of Butterfly Lodge at Oh' Farms. We had a simple but memorable 1st anniversary celebration in the evening, lasted a few hours (see here).

Bearing in mind that I had to be at Butterfly Lodge in the evening , so, I decided to go for a short outing to the Central Catchment Area (CCA) in the afternoon after lunch.

I took a leisure walk along a forest fringe leading to Upper Peirce Reservoir (of course I didn't reach there). I was all alone throughout my 2-hour of walking on a quiet and tranquil forest path. This tailess Arhopala species was abundant again. It looks like a Arhopala major major though I cannot be 100% sure because there are quite a few highly similar species that can be found in our forest.

There were not many insect activities on a generally fine Sunday afternoon. This small plant bug (?) was shot in the shade with a low shutter's speed.

It looked like a three-headed alien to me on my camera's viewfinder after I took a shot of this strange creature above my eye level. When I pulled the branches down, I realised that it looked more like a grasshopper nymph to me.

It was another quiet outing for me on this stretch of forest trail. Before I headed for Bah Soon Pah Road where the Butterfly Lodge is situated, I encountered two fast-flying Lycaenids in the bushes where the climber Pueraria phaseoloides was abundant. With part of the intense metallic blue upperside wings exposed when they were in flight, I knew they were Dark Caerulean (Jamides bochus nabonassar).

Recently, SC, one of the veteran member of ButterflyCircle (BC) successfully recorded the life history of this species on another host plant, Derris trifoliata (see here).

With some BC members' relentless effort and enthusiasm in breeding butterfly larva to adulthood and documenting the whole process, we will slowly discover that many butterfly species do have alternative larval host plants. The knowledge we gain will help us in our work of butterfly conservation.

Other butterfly species spotted but not photographed.
1. Neocheritra amrita amrita (Grand Imperial)
2. Flos anniella anniella