Seletar Wasteland On Christmas Day 2010

It has been more than 6 months since my last visit to this wasteland in the north-east of Singapore where some major industrial development has been going on nearby. I was glad to see that this wasteland has been very much intact.

The "entrance" to the trail was blocked by fallen tree trunks but that didn't stop me from moving forwards. There were a few Pipturus argenteus (Native Mulberry) shrubs near the entrance and quite a number of Malayan Eggfly (Hypolimnas anomala anomala) larvae were munching the leaves happily. A detailed write-up of this plant can be found here.

The jelly-like fruits of this shrub are white in colour. I believe they are sweet and edible.

Same as my previous few outings to this wasteland, Common Sailor (Neptis hylus papaja) were quite abundant. Though they were rather skittish and alert, however with lots of patience and luck, I managed to take a few shots when they were feeding.

The Common Sailor has a habit of flapping its wings when feeding. This is a snap shot of the upperside wings, showing clearly the arrangement of the white spots which are very similar to a few other Neptis and Athyma species.

Without the underside shot, it is rather difficultfor us to identify this Lycaenidae species with confidence.

Luckily, I had one underside shot to confirm that this is a Tailless Line-Blue (Prosotas nora superdates) - it came down from the tree-top as fast as it disappeared.

Common Caerulean (Jamides celeno aelianus) was everywhere because one of its larval host plants - a ground creeper looks like Pueraria phaseoloides was abundant here.

A dark brown skipper with its underside hindwing unmarked and "spiky legs" looks like a Baoris species. It was quite lethargic on a rather cool morning - I could see the dark clouds were gaining momentum moving towards where I was. About noon time, gutsy winds accompanying passing rains finally disrupted my outing so I had to turn back hastily and head to Yishun to have my lunch.