Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Butterflies of Gua Tempurung @ Kampar Part 2

Continue from my last post.

The first species we encountered when we reached Gua Tempurung  was a pristine Colonel (Pandita sinope sinope). It perched from leaf to leaf and puddled occasionally.
 I was rather lucky to snap a few underside shots when it was "sipping" on a cement slab.
At the stream where the exit/entrance to the cave is, we saw a few White Dragontails (Lamproptera curius curius)  in the late afternoon.
It also puddled with openwings and stayed there for quite sometime.
The constant  breeze at the entrance to the cave was refreshing. The Plain Lacewing (Cethosia penthesilea methypsea) appeared there for a short while before it went into hiding. 
The Tufted Jungle King (Thauria aliris pseudaliris ) is a large Nymphalidae species whose preferred habitat is the forest understory. We were surprised to see this fellow resting on a brickwall before settling on a ginger leaf.    
Dr Seow from ButterflyCircle explained that since the orange band on the forewing reaching the costa, this skipper which was found at the shelter is Koruthaialos sindu sindu.
There were many black butterflies flitting around. Yes, they were the male Black Prince (Rohana parisatis siamensis). Though they were abundant they were extremely alert - I got a decent shot only on the last day afternoon.
The undersides of the males are nicer and he was completely intoxicated by a chicken bone found in the shelter where I recharged myself energy level with bread and "energy bars" .
The females look very different and are prettier then the males - an example of sexual dimorphism.  I spotted only two females on two different days - I guess they were too shy to come down to the ground level.    
This Poritia erycinoides phraatica appeared on Day 2 morning just behind the toilet. The iridescent blue of its uppersides was quite attractive. 
We saw a few Banded Marquis (Bassarona teuta rayana) flying past us a few times at the cave. But this fellow landed on a grass patch besides the toilet. 
After enough uptake of of nutrients from the cement floor behind the toilet, this Orange Gull (Cepora iudith malaya) perched on a leaf for a few seconds before it hurriedly scooted off.


Please stay tune for more butterfly species to be featured in my next post.

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