Wallace Trail @ Dairy Farm Park

It was past noon on a hot Saturday (9 Oct), I decided to drop by the Dairy Farm Park as I was nearby. The usual butterfly species such as the Common Birdwing, Cruiser, Tailed Jay were visiting the Lantana bushes and the Pagoda flowers but I just could not withstand the unbearable heat to wait for them to perch. I decided to take a slow walk along the Wallace Trail instead.

My first impression of this elongated red-winged insect with an interesting pair of serrated antennae was a moth. On the computer screen, I realise that it may be a net-winged beetle (Taphes brevicollis) belonging to the family Lycidae.

This is a kind of fly which looks like a mosquito. At first, it kept wandering on a fallen tree trunk and I just could not get a proper shot. At one moment it decided to rest underneath the tree trunk, though just a few seconds, thankfully it was good enough for me to snap a shot. What do you think of this shot is ? A twig ? No, It is likely to be a moth larva - I wish I knew more about this interesting-looking and weird creature.

I was rather lucky to spot a very tame damselfly Devadatta argyoides. According to Tang's book, this is an uncommon species which has a tendency to perch with its wings inclined to its body at an angle. Here is a very informative blog write-up on the copulation behaviour and here is yet another blog entry on this species.

A pair of mating Micropezid fly - very common in our forested areas.

I could see a few butterfly species flying past me along Wallace Trail. It was this male Common Hedge Blue (Acytolepis puspa lambi) that caught my attention as it was fluttering erratically along the trail to-and-fro, looking for puddling spots - at last he found one. This lycaenid looks like a Rounded 6-line Blue (Nacaduba berenice icena). From my field observation, it has the tendency to lean side way slightly whenever it perches on a leaf or puddles.