A Rare Lycaenid at Upper Peirce Reservoir Park

Thanks BJ for giving me a lift to the Upper Peirce Reservoir Park on a nice Saturday morning (1 June). We ventured deep into forest but the muddy and waterlogged forest trail make it very difficult for us to move on without getting our self wet. We decided to backtrack and head towards the piped line trail. 

I noticed a butterfly-like moth hopping across my path and landed on a leaf in a deep forest shade - a quick shot was enough for me as I didn't have a strong interest in photographing moths.  

Except for the Common Faun (Faunis canens arcesilas), we hardly saw any other butterflies inside the  forest.

The Arhopala major major is a rather common tailless forest denizen - sometimes we could see a few of them flitting around in shady parts of the forest.

Arhopala aurea is a very rare species - my last sighting of it was a few years ago at USR. When it was flitting around, the metallic iridescent green upperside was simply magnificent. We were very lucky to encounter a very pristine specimen. 

This shot shows a glimpse of the green.

There are too many look-alike Arhopala species. Dr Seow from ButterflyCircle has identified it as the  Arhopala sublustris ridleyi. 

On our way out, I spotted another lycaenid - a Yellow Flash (Rapala nasaka amba) was hiding between leaves. Pity that the fading colour of the wings didn't do justice to the true beauty of this cute and pretty species. 

While strolling along the tarred road towards the carpark, a Chestnut Angle (Odontoptilum angulatum angulatum) appeared and perched on the tip of a leave at first but it was finally attracted by bird droppings on a dry leave.