Flora and Fauna @ Bah Soon Pah Road

Do you know where Bah Soon Pah Road is ? Named after a Paranakan Chinese Lim Nee Soon (1879 - 1936), Bah Soon Pah road is about 1km long connecting Sembawang road and the Khatib MRT Station in the northern part of Singapore. Taking a slow walk from one end to the other end, you should be able to discover its charm, serenity and its diversity of flora and fauna. There are quite a few nurseries, vegetable farms and one or two vacated farmlands which allow wildlife thriving on them.

This make Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna) was flitting around some Coat Button (Tridax procumbens ) flowers. I was lucky that it stayed on the flowers a bit longer for me to take a few shots. However, the female was a bit lethargic and shy- she was still resting. This small and a common but not very conspicuous butterfly is Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis lampa), feeding on some attractive Alysicarpus vaginalis (?) flowers - you are sure to find them around in this area if you are look around carefully. This is a male Crocothemis servilia - an all-red dragonfly with a row of black markings on the dorsal abdomen. It is widespread and can be found in gardens, parks and wastelands. This is a mating pair of Ischnura senegalensis - the female has at least two different colour forms. The shot here shows the green form which looks almost the same as the male.
This is another shot when the couple rested on a grass blade.
I have been noticing many insects like to feed on flowers from the Asteraceae family. There were many hover flies feeding on the flowers of Ageratum conyzoides . Not sure if this is another species of hover fly.
A day-flying moth (syntomis sp) was also attracted by these flowers.

Interestingly, this invasive weed contains some chemical compounds which may inhibit the grow of cancerous cells in our body according to some medical researchers (see here) and have insecticide effects on agricultural produce (see here) as well.We could find quite a few other species of wild flowers if we looked around carefully. This small but prominent yellow flower may belong to the genus Ludwigia .

I am not sure if this is a kind of wild basil Ocimum gratissimum - the cluster of flower buds and flowers definitely look unique and beautiful. My last shot of the day was this predominantly white planthopper resting on the tree trunk.
So, no matter how small and insignificant the wild places can be, we can still find some nice flowering weeds and critters if we put on a differernt kind of lens to look around.