Butterfly Species @ Jurong-Eco Garden

It has been a long time since my last visit to a wild place in the western part of the island. On a humid and hot Saturday morning (24 May), I dropped by at a new man-made garden behind the CleanTech Park outside Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Jalan Bahar - now I know it is called the Jurong- Eco Garden. 

Before I spotted any butterfly species, I was attracted by some "boulders" all with pointed ends, sitting uprightly at a quiet corner of the garden. An iconic and unique "landmark" of this garden, it is named the Sculpted Maze - an excellent piece of work created by our local pottery artist Mr Steven Low Thia Kwang.  

My first butterfly shot in the morning was this male Malayan Baron. Though it was skittish and alert, I could snap a few shots if I stayed still  patiently waiting for it to feed on the fermented fruits of the Singapore Rhododendron.

The male of this species has three different forms which can be distinguished from the uppersides - this is form-decorata.

Though this Tawny Palmfly (Elymnias panthera panthera) was competing with the Malayan Baron for the fruits, it was less aggressive and willing to wait for its turn to feed on the fruits.

There are a few look-alike "black-and-white" butterflies in Singapore. I wasn't sure which species this was when I saw this skittish fellow fluttering around a tree, "pretending" to oviposit. I think this is a Studded Sergeant (Athyma asura idita) which I have not seen it for a long time.

This is a  female Nacaduba species that we can't be 100% sure of  its identification - it was spotted along the forest fringe along the boundary of the garden.

The Malayan Eggfly (Hypolimnas anomala anomala) is a common butterfly. The male occurs in two forms. This is form-nivas which has a prominent patch of diffused white markings on the hindwing. [Note : in this write-up, the butterfly identified as Dwarf Crow should be The Malayan Eggfly. The other wrongly identified butterfly is labelled as the Blue Helen]

Before I went to explorer the forested area, I saw a Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) fluttering overhead and finally feeding on some Ixora flowers - it was so difficult to get a good close-up shot when it refused to stay still at one feeding position. 

Generally, it was a quiet and disappointing outing for me as I didn't encounter any of  the rare species that we used to see in the forested areas next to the garden - not a good sign !!