An Uncommon Butterfly@Mandai

Thanks CH for giving me a lift from WWW to a Park Connector at Mandai on 9 March. While we were walking towards the shelter, we saw a few Acacia Blue (Surendra vivarna amisena) feeding on the Costus flower buds. Most of them were quite tattered except for this specimen.

This specimen landed just in front of me when we were hunting for butterflies on a patch of grassland.

We could only find a few Common Sailors (Neptis hylas papaja) chasing each other and feeding on some wild flowers and perhaps fruits of grasses under the hot sun.

I managed to snap a quick shot of the uppersides of this Common Sailor when it spent a few seconds longer on the perch.

Along a gravel road, we saw a small Pothanthus species.

We met Horace at the trail also. At around 2 pm, a male butterfly Euripus nyctelius euploeoides suddenly appeared. CH and I waited patiently for him to perch before we could take some shots of this rather pristine specimen.

The common name of this rather uncommon butterfly is Courtesan, a rather strange and disgraceful name given to this beauty. Here is another shot when he was on a high perch.

A Slate Flash (Rapala manea chozeba ) landed on a Trema shrub.

A snap shot of its uppersides when it suddenly opened its wings partially.

I  could see quite a number of skippers zipping around along a forest trail but I was just too slow or rather these skipper were just too active and alert for me to get any record shot - I have to visit this place more often if I want to find out what these skippers are.