My First Visit to FRIM

I must thank Yong San for taking his time off bringing me to FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia) during my short free-and-easy holiday in Kulua Lumpur (KL) with my family. Occupying a large forested area of 600 hectares in Kepong, about 16 km north-west of KL, this tropical rainforest is endowed with a wealth of flora and fauna species.

A common and large brown skipper with a rather unique posture whenever it was resting on a leaf surface, Coon (Psolos fuligo fuligo) was rather abundant there - it was very sensitive to the camera flash light.

Again, I spotted a few skippers which looked like this Bright Red Velvet Bob (Koruthaialos sindu sindu). We would notice its large and prominent orange band on the forewing when it is near by in the field.

Many Common Caerulean (Jamides celeno aelianus) were actively fluttering around some wild flowers and weeds.

Yong is very familiar with the place. After a short break at the canteen he brought me to a small waterfall. We were fortunate to see two butterfly species. This very dark Faunis kirata was quite skittish and I didn't have good angle to nail a better shot.

In fact, we spotted this Dark Blue Jungle Glory (Thaumantis klugius lucipor) first, feeding on some dry fruit on the damp ground at the waterfall.

This beautiful damselfly Aristocypha fenestrella was my most precious sighting in FRIM - simply because its iridescent wings were magnificent, especially when it was in flight and seen from a particular angle. Yong knew a pond which is home to two species of damselfly. Yes, true enough they are permanent residents there - one with the orange legs and the other with white legs.

This white-legged smaller damselfly was rather difficult to be noticed when it was hiding amongst the grassy vegetation around the edge of the pond.

I feel that shooting beetles is not that easy though they don't usually roam around rapidly or take off when we move closer because the shiny and reflective shell is always a challenge for photographers to overcome.

Finally, I would like to present a shot of this small and cute Tiger beetle (?) - again this is another difficult subject for photography.

Once again thanks Yong for guiding me around in FRIM, without him I would not be able to explore the trails and photograph the three new damselfly species for me.