No Surprise @ Mount Faber Park

It has been almost a year since I last visited Mount Faber Park (MF). After collecting a free gift from Cannon Singapore on a late Friday morning, I dropped by the park which is just across the road. Same as before, I took a leisure stroll along Marang Trail, reaching the peak in less than 30 minutes.

My first shot of the afternoon was this small and drab moth resting on Saga (Adenanthera pavonina) leaves near the entrance of the trail.This plant looks like an Ardisia species to me. My curiosity was aroused when I noticed that there were many leaves with holes, a definite sign of insects eating the leaves.

I flipped over some leaves and found at least four larvae. The picture shows two of them , one early and one late instar. I guess these are larvae of an Abisara species (Thanks BJ).

The pupa looks quite cute and nice.This red beauty belongs to the Riodinidae family of butterfly. This should be a male Abisara species that I am not very confident of identifying it. Read this ButterflyCircle's blog article for an insightful and detailed discussion on its possible identity. I saw three individuals engaging in "dog-fighting " activity on a windy afternoon.

Due to its shady habitat and the usual persistent breeze at the location, getting a good shot of this species is always a challenge for us. This shot reveals the upperside of a male when he perched on a leaf very high up.These shots appear to be a Pointed Line Blue (Ionolyce helicon merguiana) perching on a leaf near the "playground" of the above Abisara species.The undersides of Ambon Onyx (Horaga syrinx maenala ) is predominantly ochreous brown with a prominent white band across both wings. I encountered three individuals chasing each other whenever an "intruder" came close to one's territory. This is one of my best instinctive snapshot as I hardly had any time to think and compose my shots on this guy. Colour Sergent (Athyma nefte subrata) seems to be a permanent resident at MF. This male was found along a row of hedges when he was sunbathing. I often encountered the male but not female.

It was a rare moment when I saw a half-opened wing Apefly (Spalgis epius epius), warming itself under the afternoon sun. This is my very first shot of the uppersides of this species. I am not sure if this tiny and cute critter is a froghopper. It was moving aimlessly on a stem but I had to follow it and aim hard to get this shot. No new species spotted but I was quite pleased to see and shoot quite a few butterfly species on a rather short weekday afternoon outing. Let's hope that one or two Vanessa species will visit us again this year.