Sunday, August 8, 2010

A Hot Morning @ Dairy Farm Park

On the last weekend of July, I was out for my usual outing to Upper Seletar Reservoir (USR) in the morning. I met Koh there and both of us shared the same sentiment - a super quiet morning at USR. So we decided to go to the Dairy Farm Park. Thanks Kok for giving me a lift there.

At Daily Farm Park, the Pagoda flowers (Clerodendrum paniculatum) attracted quite a number of butterflies. This male Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) was found hovering around the area, enticing us to get some panning in-flight shots. I got a long distance shot when it fed on the flowers intermittently.
The evergreen Lantana (Lantana camera) bushes also attracted some orange skippers - they particularly preferred the smaller Lantana flowers to the Peacock flowers. I guess this is a male Telicota species judging from the markings on the underside hindwing.
I suspect this is another Telicota skipper.
Another specimen of an orange skipper with a bloated abdomen.A rather distinctive skipper with a purplish sheen on its wings, this is a female Plain Palm Dart (Cepherens acalle niasicus) which was feeding on the Lantana flowers in the late morning for just a few seconds . The males are very similar to other orange skippers such as those Telicota species. The life history of this species has been documented in details here.
This might be a male Plain Palm Dart which chose to rest under the shade after a whole morning of feeding.
A glimpse of its upperside forewing.
A Banded Demon (Notocrypta paralysos varians) was first found feeding on the Peacock flowers. After a while it decided to basking under the sun.
Butterflies in the genus Cethosia are generally colourful which have zigzag border on both wings . This Malay Lacewing (Cethosia hypsea hypsina) was flitting amongst the flowers very actively.
The Cruiser (Vidula dejone erotella) butterfly especially the male is rather common in our forest. We were rather lucky to see two females feeding on the flowers though they were not in their best conditions.
We will never fail to see a Common Faun (Faunis canens arcesilas) in our forest understory. Though a drab and uninteresting butterfly, the ground colour of its upperside is quite beautiful if you observe carefully when it is flitting around.
Lastly a katydid also could not resist the scorching heat- hiding under shade for a long time before I decided to take a shot.

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