Flying Jewels @ Lata Kinjang

Lata Kinjang waterfall is situated at Chendering , a small town between Kampar and Tapah in Perak. On 2nd May morning, we arrived there quite early and managed to find a parking lot. There were already some families setting up tents and children wading in the river.

We slowly climbed up the hill. Near a shelter, this Dark Yellow-banded Flat (Celaenorrhinus aurivittatus cameroni) was seen basking in the morning sun with wings fully opened. The prominent orange band vertically divides the forewing above into half. After taking some shots, both BJ and I realised that we had already donated some blood to leeches. Near the place where we shot the above skipper, we saw a Royal Assyrian (Terinos terpander robertsia) puddling in the shelter. This magnificent species can be found in some parts of the central catchment area in Singapore. A detailed write-up of this species can be found here. The absence of the subapical white spots on the forewing below suggests that this Autumn Leaf (Doleschallia bisaltide) is likely to be the subspecies pratipa as pointed out by Khew

This unknown Miletus species was found along a path on our way back to the carpark in the late morning. Larger than the usual Miletus species that I have seen in Singapore, I am not able to identify which species it is.

The highlight of the morning was this gorgeous Jewel Nawab (Polyura delphis concha). With the experience of BJ, he knew which sweet spot the Jewel Nawab would visit, so we waited there for a while. Yes, true enough it finally showed up and puddled near the riverbank for us to take a few shots.

A member of the Satyrinae subfamily, this Dark Evening Brown (Melanitis phedima abdullae) flew past me while we were walking through an Orang Asli kumpong towards the downstream of the waterfall.

While I was waiting at the riverbank, a rather pristine Banded Angle (Odontoptilum pygela pygela) landed on some leaf litter. It stayed at this position for a while waiting for us to take more shots.

I misidentified this to be a Common Sailor (Neptis hylas papaja). Yong who has shot many Malaysian species pointed out that this may be a Neptis nata gononata.

This is a record shot of its uppersides taken at a hut. Indeed, there is a slight difference in the cell streak between N. hylas paparia and N. nata gononata.

Red Helen (Papilio helenus helenus) is rather common , again we saw at least two individuals puddling on the riverbank.

BJ contributed this video clip showing how above Red Helen puddled.

The Chocolate Royal (Remelana jangala travana ) can be found in Singapore's nature reserve. A four-tailed Hairstreak butterfly, it landed on my sweaty shirt at first but BJ skillfully transferred it to his finger.
This robberfly appeared to be much larger than what I usually encountered in our central catchment area. It was photographed along a trail near the puddling site of Jewel Nawab.
Finally, I would like to share a Tiger Beetle to conclude this series of blog posts on my trip to Perak from 30 Apr to 2 May. Once again thanks Yong for providing the transport, Chee Ming and his father who helped BJ and I to buy the coach ticket back to Singapore.

We certainly were awed by the great biodiversity in Perak and needless to say all of us enjoyed this trip greatly.