Some Butterflies@Lower Peirce Reservoir Park

After an early lunch at the Casuarina Road Prata shop on a Saturday (25 Jan) morning, my plan of heading to Upper Seleter Reservoir Park was dashed by the bad service of  bus 138 (two buses refused to stop for me). I decided to drop by Lower Peirce Reservoir Park for my weekly butterfly photography outing.

This damselfly showing an elegant perch on some leaves was spotted at a quiet corner of the reservoir edge.  I have no idea what species this is.

Strolling leisurely on the boardwalk, I noticed a Burmese Lascar (Lasippa heliodore dorelia) sailing and gliding past me. When it settled down, I managed to snap a quick shot.

A skipper was zipping around with high speeds. But on a very quiet day, I decided to wait and observe carefully where it would stop at. I was lucky to be able to spot it again and take a few quick shots. This brown skipper turned out to be the Pugnacious Lancer (Pemara pugnans).

A rather pristine male Archduke (Lexias pardalis dirteana) gave me an opportunity to increase my camera's shutter count - my last shot of the day.

Serenity and Diversity @ Lower Peirce Reservoir Park

It has been quite a long time since my last visit to the Lower Peirce Reservoir Park. I dropped by this easily-accessible reservoir park on a Saturday morning (24 Aug). My first reaction was wow, what a cool place and there were not many people here.

    

This pretty Malayan Plum Judy (Abisara savitri savitri)  landed on the boardwalk for less than a second before perching on a leaf. I approached closer and took two shots before it disappeared towards the reservoir edge. 

There were not many butterflies along the boardwalk so I took a closer look at dragonflies.I spotted a few small damselflies either resting or hovering in the air at one shady corner along the boundary of the reservoir. 

At another spot, I spotted this white juvenile damselfly - I have no idea what these two damselflies are.

Strolling on a section of the boardwalk which is built above the water, I arrived at a picnic ground fronting the reservoir. Watching some kids having fun with their parents on the groundsheets, I realised how fast years have passed. I lingered awhile, looking out for insects. Yes, you would not miss this mating squash bug having a good time on the red and prominent fruits.     

I am not sure what these fruits are but they certainly enhanced the composition of this shot - what a pity the mating pair moved away quickly.

This carpenter bee kept me busy for some time. This is my best attempt out of many shots.

This Malayan Lascar (Lasippa tiga siaka) displayed the typical pre-ovipositing behaviour - loitering around, making short perches and testing out the plants nearby.

Finally, she oviposited a single egg on the tip of a young Erycibe tomemtosa leaf.

Near the carpark, a solitary Small Branded Swift (Pelopidas mathias mathias) was taking a short break after feeding on the Ixora flowers.

There were many Cycad Blues (Chilades pandava pandava) fluttering amogst and feeding on flowers of the Yellow Creeping Daisy (Wedelia trilobata).  

Apart from the lush vegetation and the high canopy surrounding the reservoir, the serenity coupled with the morning breeze, the occasional bird melodies and the continuous cicada songs really changed my view of this reservoir park. I must come here more often to immerse myself into this calm and peaceful environment.    

A Quiet Day at Lower Pierce Reservoir Park

It was a sunny and hot Saturday morning on 22 July. After getting some work done at home, I decided to have my early lunch at Casurina Road before dropping by at Lower Pierce Reservoir (LPR) Park. It was rather quiet throughout the whole morning. The only good catch of the day was this Common Awl (Hasora badra badra. As usual, it hid below a leaf so getting a good shot was always a challenge.

Not far away from this Awl, a robber fly was resting on a Fish Tail Palm leaf.

The next moment, I noticed that a white flimsy object appeared in front of its month, what is this ?

This is a dorsal view of the robber fly.

A Chequered Lancer (Plastingia naga) was zipping around. After checking a few leaves, she finally laid this tiny reddish hemispherical egg on a leaf surface of a Fish Tail Palm (Caryota mitis). She disappeared out of my sight completely once she laid this single egg.

A common forest denizen, The Branded Imperial (Eooxylides tharis distanti is a long-tailed Lycaenid which tends to "hop" from perch to perch.

There were quite a few Common Five Rings (Ypthima baldus newboldi) feeding on some very small white flowers. The sky suddenly turned cloudy and it was rather windy when these shots were taken.

Another Common Five Ring was feeding on another cluster of flowers.
A large cluster of wild mushrooms was found on a rotten wood along the boardwalk.

More than a week from home made me long for the fresh air and the tranquility our forests would bestow us. I really enjoyed strolling in the forest, listening to the different forest symphonies and taking pictures in a natural environment surrounded by lush greenery and the reservoir.

First Day of The Tiger Year @ Lower Pierce Reservoir Park

I decided to "sneak out" to Lower Peirce Reservoir Park in the early afternoon on the first day of the Tiger Year (14 Feb). I was rather disappointed that there wasn't any red butterflies or critters appeared to say "Gong Xi Fa Cai" to me. Perhaps they have gone to visit their relatives in other parts of the forested areas.

A very common and widely spread butterfly, the underside wings of Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra agina) are speckled and brown predominantly. This species very rarely opens its wings to reveal its upperside. Very frequently, Painted Jezebel (Delias hyparete metarete ) was seen fluttering at tree tops. This specimen was kind enough to remain at my eye level for a while. The orange and yellow patches on the underside of the hindwings make this slow-flying Delias species a very pretty and elegant butterfly.
There were quite a few small blue leaf beetles. I found this pair was "teasing" each other using their antennae, a rather interesting behaviour. I guess they were going through a kind of courtship ritual before mating. Or were they "fighting" ? This hairy moth larva with a pretty cute head was crawling on a twig. It moved rather fast. I tried to snap its side view before it turned around on the twig.

This is another moth larva found resting on a leaf surface. We can easily spot Robber Fly species (Family : Asilidae) in our forested areas. They are stout and fierce predators of butterflies, moths and other smaller insects. This is the dorsal view of the same fly which stayed quite still in a shade. I suppose this is another species of beetle which kept moving on a leaf surface. A few senior citizens and a group of foreign workers were intrigued by two different melody of bird songs but we just could not locate where exactly the birds were at the forest canopy. Many of us stood there for a while and enjoyed the beautiful music they have created for us - I should have recorded the songs.

Lower Peirce Reservoir Park On 7 Feb 2009

A bit late in posting this entry this time. After a busy Chinese New Year weekends, my first outing on a rather cloudy Saturday morning was to explore a portion of the forest edges near the Lower Peirce Reservoir Park. This time, I was with some friends from the ButterflyCircle and Nparks.

Failing to find any insect life after 10 - 15 mins of hunting, I could sense that the insects were either asleep or on a prolonged Chinese New Year holidays, visiting some other places.

My first snap of the day was this brown skipper, a long distance shot
The brownish unmarked hindwing and the opaque spots on the forewing suggest that this might be a Baoris species - anyway, I can't be sure.

Usually, we would spot Tagiades gana gana (Large Snow Flat) basking in the sun along forest trails with an open-winged posture. However, perhaps due to the cool weather, this particular Large Snow Flat was quite lethargic and tame when I spotted it. From my field observations, I noticed that Large Snow Flat was quite territorial and it often perched on the upperside of a leaf after a short flight. This hoverfly looks like a Eristalinus arvorum. It was busy hunting for nectar on the tiny Bougainvillea flowers and quite oblivious to our presence. Our bees and wasps expert, John was explaining to us that one way to distinguish a fly from a bee is that a fly has only one pair of wings and generally has bigger eyes compared to two pairs of wings and smaller eyes in bees. This blue beetle with a long feeler was surveying the ground above my eye level. Getting this shot was quite a challenge for me as the wind was strong at that moment. Very rare to see that the two antennae were inclined at an awakard angle.

This small butterfly, Zizeeria maha serica (Pale Grass Blue) was shot along the Ixora hedges just besides the carpark. Likely to be found also in urban parks, Pale Grass Blue can be easily mistaken for the other two similar species - Zizula hylax pygmaea (Pygmy Grass Blue) and Zizina otis lampa (Lesser Grass Blue) The submarginal black markings on both wings are more prominant than the other two species -

My first impression was that I might have chanced upon a new Lacaenid as the forewing black markings were something I have never seen before. However, the flight pattern, the tendency to flutter at low bushes and the whitish light blue uppersides suggested very strongly to me that it was a Jamides celeno aelianus (Common Caerulean). Taking a closer look at the shot, I realised that its forewing did not develop properly during the eclosion process. I have no idea what I had shot below, a nymph perhaps ? It looks rather interesting.

Lastly, this is a low-flying common moth we always see at the ground level among the grass.