Rare Skippers @ Dairy Farm Park After Rain

A prolonged  pre-dawn shower on 9 June delayed my usual morning outing. Thanks CH for picking me up at Toa Payoh around 10:30am and heading to Dairy Farm Park (DFP) instead of our original plan of going to somewhere in the north east. 

The sky cleared up quite a bit when we reached DFP. We headed straight to the hut where I usually hung around looking for butterfly and other insect species. On the way, a couple of Grass Demons (Udaspes folus)  was taking a nap in a cool morning.

A few dark brown skippers were zipping around. Once they perched, they were tame enough giving us a few seconds to fire a shot like this. It looks like a male Quedara monteithi monteithi, a relatively rare skipper.

This is another more pristine individual appearing in the early afternoon. 

I encountered only one female which can be identified rather easily by the presence of a prominent white band on the forewing discal region. 

Here is a a view of her uppersides on another perch.  A male Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) was hovering around the area feeding on flowering nectar in midair - getting a decent shot  of this fellow is challenging as it never stayed still most of the time.

A male Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) was hovering around the area feeding on flowering nectar in midair - getting a decent shot  of this fellow is challenging as it never stayed still most of the time. 

The Ultra Snow Flat (Tagiades ultra) is another relatively rare skipper that I encountered in this outing. It was a pity that I didn't have  a chance of shooting another pristine specimen.  

The highlight of the morning was at least two, perhaps three Banded Swallowtails (Papilio demolion demolion) speeding past us in the late with high speed. We were all waiting at the small yellow Virgin Tree (Mussaenda philippica Family : Rubiaceae) for it to perch - this was a lucky shot.    

Here is an upperside shot when it rested in a shade for a short while  - getting the correct exposure to reveal the pale green bands and markings on the wings was a nightmare to me. 

As time went by and with the sun emerging from behind the clouds, more butterfly activities were observed. A few Malay Lacewings (Cethosia hypsea hypsina) were busy feeding on the Lantana flowers.  

A few Common Mormons (Papilio polytes romulus) were  "chasing" each other and feeding voraciously. These small flowers attracted a few skippers. One dark brown skipper which looks like a Paintbrush Swift (Baoris oceia) was feeding high up on a flower.

The small yellow flowers attracted a few butterflies. One dark brown skipper which looks like a Paintbrush Swift (Baoris oceia) was feeding high up on a flower. 

I have not seen this beetle with a white dot before. 

and lastly a small cricket perhaps. 

It was nice meeting a couple of  butterfly photographers from Hong Kong (sorry I can't remember their names) who were accompanied by a local butterfly guide, Yi Kai (sorry if I got your name wrong).