Fascinating Moths @ FH

There are more than 180, 000 described species of moths on Earth and probably many more waiting to be discovered and named - due to evolutionary and adaption process that constantly happening in our changing environment.

During my trip to Fraser's Hill (FH) in Aug, I encountered many moths heading towards the corridor white fluorescent lights and landed on the walls, tables or on the floor.

There were many different kinds of moths of all sizes, shapes, colours and patterns - super diverse group of insects. First of all, two medium-sized brown moths.
However, the wing patterns on this moth - a male Cricula trifenestrata are quite delicate and nice.This is his female partner which has transparent spots on the forewings. Look at the glowing eyes of this moth.
Moths come in all kind of shapes - is this a T-shaped resting posture Plume moth from the family Pterophoridae ?What does it look like ? A small rat with a short tail ?
Take away the antennae and the head, this moth looks like a dry leaf ?

The body shape of this particular species of hawk moth in the family Sphingidae resembles a world war 2 propeller fighter plane on the runway ready to take off.
Another species of hawk moth (Daphnis hypothous ? ) that preferred the floor to the wall or ceiling. The size of moth species can vary a lot. The huge and spectacular Atlas Moth (Attacas sp) is bigger than our palm. In contrast, some are really small and tiny but can be brightly coloured like this species below.Some moths even have colourful-patterned abdomen or thorax. Just like butterflies, moths provide many beautiful and often startling illustrative examples of camouflage, warning colours and defensive colour patterns.A disguise or camouflage phenomenon displayed by insects to blend their body color and appearance with their natural environment in order to hide or to conceal from predators' sighting is called crypsis. Look at this cryptic moth which blends perfectly with the carpet.Some moths are endowed with brightly coloured wings and patterns which serve as warning and defensive ploys - a phenomenon described as aposematism.

Another beautiful moth with a slender body shape attracted our attention for photographing.

Some moths are very drab and plain - so colour cannot be their defense mechanism. How do they protect themselves ?

These moths are rather small but the patterns on the wings are truly amazing and beyond my imaginations.

Though the colour of the wings is in green only but the different hues or tones produce a very artistic and creative design.

The antennae of moths come in various shapes and colours. The glowing eyes and the pair of feathery antennae make this moth a popular subject for us to photograph.

Whereas this moth has a long and thin pair of antennae - not that attractive though.

Where are the antennae ? They may be hidden under their wings.

Some of us had the opportunity to capture the moment when this moth showed its abdominal opening called anus (is this the correct term ?) - what an "interesting" phenomenon.

Last but not least, I have not been able to identify most of the species here -really hope that readers of the blog can help me to do so.

The Smallest Dragonfly Couple @ Lornie Trail

The PSI reading from the NEA website on 23 Oct was rather high at 8 am, 68 to be exact. Most people would have stayed at home but I still preferred to walk in the forest.

My first encounter along Lornie Trail (LT) was this rather huge robber fly, having a long tapering and banded abdomen. Robber Flies belong to the family Asilidae - they are carnivorous, bestowed with strong and long legs capable of grabbing their prey as shown in the picture.

Nannophya pygmaea is one of the smallest dragonflies in the world. We are fortunate to have this little and cute beauty in the central catchment areas - they are usually there to welcome me. The males have a very intense and prominent red abdomen.
There were at least half a dozen males there. It took me a while to capture this in-flight shot but I just could not freeze the wings.

Females are rarer and smaller and they look very different from the males with her abdomen being brownish with a few white bands. She was more cooperative and less active than the males.

Another larger red dragonfly which looks like a Rhodothemis rufa was resting on a grass blade near the reservoir edge. I very rarely encountered a male Archduke visiting flowers in the wild. This was an uncommon scene shown here but it didn't stay long enough for me to take a better shot - what a pity.A rather worn-out lycaenid - probably a Nacaduba species appeared for just a few seconds before it went up to the canopy.
This small orange skipper which looks like a Lesser Dart (Potanthus omaha omaha) was resting and feeding intermittently on a grass patch near the reservoir edge where the white Asystesia flowers were in bloom.
A strange behaviour was observed - it inserted its head into the flower's corolla tube. I don't understand why it didn't use its proboscis. It would have been fetal if there were a spider hiding in there.
This dark brown skipper looks like a male Quedara monteithi monteithi, a rather uncommon species displaying a tendency of facing towards the shady forested area whenever it perched. This behaviour gave me no chance of getting a good frontal shot.

Fortunately, I noticed that the haze didn't seem to produce any significant adverse effect on the fauna species in the forest - some butterflies still fluttering around though most of them were at the canopy level and dragonflies were seen darting from perch to perch. However, a prolonged hazy natural environment is going to be detrimental to all creatures - so let's hope everyone plays a part in keeping our air clean.

Nothing New Along A Forest Trail

On a cloudy Saturday morning, I went on a solo outing to a forest trail along the Upper Thomson Road.

There were quite a few white bracket fungi sprouting out from the the forest floor - they grew in layers like a bunch of petals.

A rather small ant with a pair of long antennae, this ant looks like a Polyrhachis species, resting on the surface of a Hairy Clidermia (Clidemia hirta) leaf. Endowed with a pair of muscular and powerful hindlegs, this leaping insect is a species of cricket . A male cricket can male chirping noise by rubbing its forewings.
Though they were in an intimate position, this pair of mating Agionoptera insignis was rather active and alert. After stalking them for a while, my patience paid off and they allowed me to take a few shots from far.
This shot looks like a male Agionoptera insignis perching on a twig
Another skittish and rather large dragonfly, Cratilla metallica lives up to its name by displaying its attractive metallic blue body.
The Common Five Ring (Ypthima baldus newboldi) seems to be more common than the other Ring butterflies along this stretch of the forest trail. Here a mating pair was quietly enjoying their private moment in a shade before I disturbed them to perch at a more accessible position.
I didn't have much time to venture deep into the forest so after about an hour I had to make a u-turn and ended this rather disappointing outing.

Wallace Trail @ Dairy Farm Park

It was past noon on a hot Saturday (9 Oct), I decided to drop by the Dairy Farm Park as I was nearby. The usual butterfly species such as the Common Birdwing, Cruiser, Tailed Jay were visiting the Lantana bushes and the Pagoda flowers but I just could not withstand the unbearable heat to wait for them to perch. I decided to take a slow walk along the Wallace Trail instead.

My first impression of this elongated red-winged insect with an interesting pair of serrated antennae was a moth. On the computer screen, I realise that it may be a net-winged beetle (Taphes brevicollis) belonging to the family Lycidae.

This is a kind of fly which looks like a mosquito. At first, it kept wandering on a fallen tree trunk and I just could not get a proper shot. At one moment it decided to rest underneath the tree trunk, though just a few seconds, thankfully it was good enough for me to snap a shot. What do you think of this shot is ? A twig ? No, It is likely to be a moth larva - I wish I knew more about this interesting-looking and weird creature.

I was rather lucky to spot a very tame damselfly Devadatta argyoides. According to Tang's book, this is an uncommon species which has a tendency to perch with its wings inclined to its body at an angle. Here is a very informative blog write-up on the copulation behaviour and here is yet another blog entry on this species.

A pair of mating Micropezid fly - very common in our forested areas.

I could see a few butterfly species flying past me along Wallace Trail. It was this male Common Hedge Blue (Acytolepis puspa lambi) that caught my attention as it was fluttering erratically along the trail to-and-fro, looking for puddling spots - at last he found one. This lycaenid looks like a Rounded 6-line Blue (Nacaduba berenice icena). From my field observation, it has the tendency to lean side way slightly whenever it perches on a leaf or puddles.

A Park Connector @ Mandai

The weather forecast for 2 Oct morning was cloudy with showers which meant that it was not a day for a long outing so I decided to check out a park connector at Mandai which is near my in-law's place.

My first shot on a gloomy morning was this Silver Forget-me-not (Catochrysops panormus exiguus ) 蓝咖灰蝶). A few of them were fluttering at a low level . The little marginal black spot on the forewing is closer to the fascia as compared to another highly look-alike species Forget-me-not (Catochrysops strabo strabo).

This dark brown skipper which looks like Caltoris cormasa was resting in the bush in the early morning.

The drastic and dramatic change in the weather before noon created a vibrant scene - I began to see many speices of butterfly fluttering around. This Gram Blue (Euchrysops cnejus cnejus) mating pair was enjoying their intimate moment under the hot sun.

The ground creeper Vigna reflexopilosa (?) was abundant there - I believe this is one of the larval host plants for both the Gram Blue and Silver-forget-me-not.
A close-up shot of some yellow flowers - take a closer look if you can see something very small.
This is a small orange skipper which resembles the Yellow Grass Dart (Taractrocea archias quinta). Its speedy darting flights from perch to perch at the ground level posed a great difficulty for me to track its where-about with my naked eyes.

The Common Faun (Faunis canens arcesilas) is a shade-loving forest denizen. I was rather surprised to see it puddling on a tarmac road - it might have come from the secondary forest nearby.

Another orange skipper appeared around 1 pm outside a big shelter where I was resting and packing up to depart. I am quite sure that this skipper belongs to the genus Telicota but which species it is ?

There were quite a few dragonfly species - one of them was this rather skittish Rhyothemis phyllis , hovering in the air and perching intermittently. I could only get a long-distance shot.
Two different species of spiders were spotted in the same vicinity - both look new to me. I hope some "spidermen" or "spidewowen" out there would provide the name for me. (Note : I think the first shot below is a Hasselt's Spiny Spider ?)

This is a kind of squash bug with a pair of long and solid hind legs - you may think that it was ambushing its preys on a grass blade. In fact it is herbivorous - plant sap is its main diet.
This cluster of wild fungus was growing on a tree trunk in a shady part of the trail - not sure if they would glow at night but the contrasting white colour was certainly prominent in the shade.
The construction of this park connector is still going on. I am sure when it is completed next year, it will be another wonderful place for macro-photographers to explore - many thanks to the Nparks' Park Connector Network.