Sunday, January 24, 2010

Rich Biodiversity @ Temasek Junior College Part 3

I walked around the college compound looking for macro subjects for my photography session on 9 Jan 2010 which was a sunny and warm Saturday morning. Any visitor to the college will not miss the pond and the sculpture In front of the General Office.

Look out for a very beautiful and attractive dragonfly Trithemis aurora. The male is brilliantly coloured with a pink body. This particular male was so skittish that I had to move around the ponds many times before I could nail a shot. The female is less attractive. This specimen was much more cooperative, staying quite still for me to take a few shots. This male Carpenter bee was buzzing around most of the time. He might be too tired and decided to rest. Common Tit (Hypolycaena erylus teatus) has a pair of curly tails on the hindwing. Very often when it is at rest, the wings are folded. It tends to slide the hindwings up and down, resulting in two tails imitating a pair of moving antennae. This is a common species that can be found in urban parks where the ornamental plant Javanese Ixora (Ixora javanica) is abundant.


We have only two Prosotos species in Singapore, one of which is Tailless Line Blue (Prosotas dubiosa lumpura). About the size of our five-cent coin, it may not be conspicuous individually. But when they are in good numbers, you could easily spot them fluttering. puddling or sun-bathing with open wings in our urban parks and gardens. I was rather fortunate to be able to get two very different shots on their feeding behaviour, obviously on two different sources.
This white-tailed Lycaenid with 3 or 4 black spots near the base of the underside hindwing is a common butterfly named Cycad Blue (Chilades pandava pandava). Its larva feeds on various cycas species which are commonly grown in public parks or perhaps in some private houses . So it is not surprise to see Cycad Blue in the college compound occasionally. A creeping weed growing on the ground, Coat Buttons (Tridax procumbens ) belongs to the family Asteraceae (Compositae). The true flowers are yellow in colour and small, packed into heads which are surrounded by five jagged white ray florets. Take a closer look when you pass by them, you may find insects feeding on the nectar-rich flower heads.
My first sighting of this small critter. I am not sure what this is, a fly perhaps.


Initially. I thought this is going to be my last blog post on flora and fauna species in the college. But since I will be visiting the college rather regularly, I guess I am still able to feature some other animals as well as wild flowers in my next post, though it may not be so soon.

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2 comments:

  1. The little bee in the last photo is a leaf-cutter bee (Megachile sp.). Possibly a male.

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  2. Wow, something new for me.
    Thanks John. Hope to meet up with you again in SG.

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