From MNT to Ranger Station On Good Friday

Hiking from MacRitchie Nature Trail (MNT) to the Ranger Station in Sime Forest is quite a long route. On Good Friday, 22 April, I began my slow hike from a slip road along Upper Thomson Road.

My first shot of the morning was this Selaginella willdenowii (Family : Selaginellaceae) - what a beautiful fern quietly growing under a big tree just a few steps away from a bus stop where I alighted.

I love the fragrance of these flowers of Jasminum sambac. Some J. sambac shrubs along the road leading to the forest fringe were covered by blooming flowers.

Presumably a migratory species, Chocolate Albeltross (Appias lyncida vasava) is a very common species in Malaysia. But we usually encountered it in the month of April and May. A skittish and a fast flyer, it gave me no chance at all for a better shot.

Along a stretch of very damp and shady forest trail, I could only spot one leafhopper.

Just before I reached the main forest trail, I saw a Bush Brown hopping on the forest undergrowth. I usually would not bother chasing a Brown. But it suddenly became quite tame and stayed stationary when I approached closer. Wow, it turned up to be a Purple Bush Brown (Mycalesis orseis nautilus) - a rather uncommon species.

Strolling slowly along the forest trail, I looked around for fauna and floral that that would interest me. At one shady corner I saw this dome-shaped mushroom on a fallen tree trunk.

From the flight behaviour of this Common Lascar (Pantoporia hordonia hordonia), I khew she was looking for the host plant to lay eggs.

True enough, she laid one green tiny egg on an old leaf of a Petai tree (Parkia speciosa).

This sun-loving Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana javana) was spotted in front of SICC. Perching on top of a flower stalk of a grass for a short while before it hurriedly fluttered away when a group of hikers passed by.

Along the service reservoir road, I saw quite a few green squash bugs (?) on one particular Singapore Rhododendron shrub.

A very hungry and hairy moth caterpillar munching furiously.

One small green immature katydid I supposed - all on one shrub. A young boy and his father asked me what I was shooting because they didn't see anything on the plant. Yes, we need to see nature with our eyes on a special focus point before we can see its beauty and wonder.

Finally I arrived at the Ranger Station. Many Common Four Ring (Ypthima huebneri) lycaenids were seen feeding on some small white flowers of Leea indica.

But only one lonely Common Five Ring (Ypthima baldus newboldi)

The competition for nectar became intense when a few Common Caerulean (Jamides celeno aelianus) also feeding furiously on the L. indica flowers.

I noticed that the barricades to the Tree Top Walk were removed - a sign that the maintenance work has been completed. But the sudden change of weather forced me to abandon the plan of going up there. In fact, I had to withstand the onslaught of the gutsy winds and heavy downpours under one small umbrella while I was on my way out along Venus Drive. We have been experiencing very strange and bizarre weather these days - the effects of climate change will wreck havoc to our normal life one day.

Trekking In Central Catchment Area On 2 May

While on my way to the nature reserve, I passed by a row of palm trees, the buzzing bees attracted my attention. Look at the number of hardworking bees on a bunch of white flowers. I hope the residents nearby know that all these bees are harmless if they are not disturbed.

The bees are one of the important pollinators of flowers in nature. The process of pollination is an essential part of sexual reproduction in seed-producing plants (spermatophytes). Look at what the bees have achieved - helping the flowers to produce many striking red fruits.

Just next to the forest fringe is a patch of grassland, early birds and insects have started their day either foraging or sunbathing.

This small beetle was roaming on a leaf. In the field, the body shell looked black to my eyes. However, the camera flash light brought out a a dark blue tint of the shell as shown in the picture.
This Lycaenid Common Line Blue was seen taking a short break when the sun was momentarily behind the clouds.

The moment I stepped on the jungle trail, this mother Common Mime (Chilasa clytia clytia) was testing out leaves to ovipositing her eggs. Finally she did and in less than a few seconds, she completed her duty. ButterflyCircle blog has an excellent account of the life history here. Look at the precision of the egg laid - precisely between two water droplets. I wonder how she ensured that the egg would not land on the water droplets ? Her abdomen has special sensing functions ?

This fern with an interesting Y-shaped arrangement of its reflective leaves was found on shady and damp forest floor in abundance. I cannot find a good match in the pocket guidebook : Ferns of Singapore published by Singapore Science Centre. [Note : As pointed out by Khew, I think this looks like Selaginella doederleinii belonging to the Selaginellaceae family]I did not notice this black big fungus on this very shady and damp trail previously. It was quite big with shining edges. There was another bigger one nearby but looked "old" to me.

I saw this very funny-looking creature moving up and down on a foliage, carrying long feathery "tails" which caught my attention first as the body size was really tiny. I had a hard time getting a decent shot of this strange and unknown (to me) bug.

There was this active spider which kept playing hide-and-seek with me.It was not my day to spot butterfly. I used to spot a few Arhopala species along this very shady and less-travelled trail.

Flies belong to the Diptera (one pair of wings) group of insects This pretty and shiny fly was found along the main forest trail.

At last, I got a chance to shoot a low flying forest-dwelling butterfly, a male Archduke (Lexias pardalis dirteana). Lexias pardalis dirteana is sexually dimorphic. The underside of the male is brownish and blends well with its preferred habitat which is the forest undergrowth.

In Singapore, the genus Lexis has three lookalike species. We can distinguish between Lexias pardalis dirteana and Lexias dirtea merguia by their differing antennae tip, orange colour in L. pardalis but black in L. dirtea. The third species Lexis canescens pardalina is the rarest and I have not shot one yet.

Commander (Moduza procris milonia) is an elegant and a swift flier which can be spotted on sunlit forest clearings. The prominent V-shaped white spots on the reddish brown upperside wings are distinctive enough for us to identify this species. An excellent ButterflyCircle blog article on Commander can be found here and its life history here.

Identifying a damselfly is usually a difficult task for me. But this damselfly with unique and highly reflective wings should be Vestalis amethystina.

This was shot in a shady trail where the ferns were thriving. Thanks to the morning rays that piercing through the canopy that enabled me to get a bright background shot. I have no idea what this species is.

It was found near a water-logged area, this looks like a Ceriagrion cerinorubellum (to be confirmed). [As pointed out by Yong, this may be an immature male of Argiocnemis rubescens. Thanks ]It was a long trekking into our nature reserve that took me about 3 hours. I felt rewarding and refresing while I was having lunch and enjoying the icy sugar cane drinks at my favourite Sembawang Hill hawker centre.