Fauna Show @ USR Part 1 (Butterfly Species)

Indeed, getting some shots on a rare skipper at Upper Seletar Reservoir (USR) Park (previous post) really infused me with high spirit and motivation of hunting for more. So I visited USR again with some ButterflyCicle members. I managed to capture quite a few other butterfly species though somewhat common.

I always found Hypolimnas anomala anomala (Malayan Eggfly) resting with both wings closed like this. Once it has got used to our presence, we could photograph this species quite easily.

We have seen female of this species laid a large number of eggs at one go. But strangely I have not seen many adults at USR. I suppose the mortality rate of its early stages was very high. Malayan Eggfly has two forms in Singapore - this is form anomala, more common than the other form, nivas which I encountered and shot before in the western part of the nature reserves.

Neither a good shot nor a pristine specimen, I would still like to present this shot on Drupadia rufotaenia rufotaenia (Pygmy Posy) butterfly, a small and rare forest beauty which is about half the size of its close resemblance, the Common Posy. Apart from the obvious difference in size, another distinguishing marking on this species is the long sub-marginal orange streak on the underside hindwing. ButterflyCircle blog featured an excellent article on this species.
Pantoporia hordonia hordonia (Common Lascar) can be easily mixed up with two other Lasippa species. There are two broad orange bands on the hindwing above compared to the other two species having an additional thin marginal orange streak. It was usually found in forest clearings or along forest trails, showing its habit of coming down to the ground level, fluttering and gliding slowly between each perch. Once a while, it may rest long enough for us to take a few shots like this.

This mating pair presents to us a clear view of the underside wings of Neptis leucoporos cresina (Grey Sailor). A rather common species among quite a few other black-and-white lookalikes, Grey Sailor can be found in our forest as well as in some urban parks. It was observed to have a tendency to glide and perch on a sunlit leaf with open wings or on fermented fruits.

Here is a shot of their upperside wings. They were too shy to open their wings fully. I should find out how to differentiate a male from a female.

This skipper Tagiades ultra was shot when it was sun-bathing at around noon. When it took off, the whitish underside wings could be seen quite clearly. A relatively rare and fast flyer, Tagiades ultra was observed to be territorial and it came back to the same or near-by perch often. Iamrix stellifer (Starry Bob) is rarer as compared to its close relative Iambrix salsala salsala (Chestnut Bob). It is quite easy to separate these two species as Starry Bob has more white dots on the underside hindwings than Chestnut Bob.

After spending many hours combing the foliage, scrutinising every movement of life, I finally saw a rare skipper Plastingia pellonia (Yellow Chequered Lancer) for the first time and narrowly missed the chance of getting a shot of another specimen less than a meter away from where the following Plastingia naga (Chequered Lancer) was.

A shade-loving skipper, Plastingia naga (Chequered Lancer) was shot under a thick canopy in a dark forest understory. This guys was tame and allowing some of us taking turns to photograph it. I could not believe myself I could get this shot at a shutter speed of 1/25 without a proper support.

When I was about to pack my camera into my bag, this Great Helen (Papilio iswara iswara), a large and elegant Swallowtail butterfly was found feeding on a row of Ixora flowers nearby under the scorching sun. It kept fluttering its forewings when feeding, posing a great challenge for us to snap a good shot. This shot was far from good as the shutter speed 1/320 was not fast enough to freeze the forewing tips.

I will be writing about my sightings of other critters in Part 2 of this blog article when I come back from my weekend trip to Endau Rompin.

Two Deaths @ Neo Tew Lane 2

I must thank Gerard for bringing me to this remote (to me) country side in the western part of Singapore on a very humid and hot Saturday morning. We reached there before 9 am, a time considered quite late for bird-watching but too early for butterfly photography. However, we still could see some birds and some Bush Brown and Ring butterflies hopping around among the grasses along the road side.

There were quite a number of brown skippers like these two shots here, busy zipping around in search of nectar. Perhaps due to the super hot morning sun, I noticed that they were extremely active and alert. It looked like a crab spider was lurking below the leaf, ready to attack the skipper. I vaguely remember that shortly after this shot was taken, the skipper flew off. Perhaps, my presence alerted the skipper and saved its life. But these two orange skippers were not so lucky. Both were killed by crab spiders.This Nepenthes crab spider waited very still on a Common Asystasia flower, ambushing insects which would come near the flower. It was so well camouflaged that even the larger and fast flying skippers could also become their meals.
A Cherry Tree (Muntingia calabura Family : Elaeocarpaceae) was flowering. The white flowers attracted quite a number of insects including bees, wasps and a few Appias libythea olferna (Striped Albatross) butterflies
This is a planthopper resting on a Lalang grass blade. This species looks quite small and I believe this was my first sighting . Two relatively rare butterfly species spotted:
1. Junonia atlites atlites (Grey Pansy)
2. Pandita sinope sinope

A Rare Skipper @ USR

It has been a few months since my last visit to Upper Seletar Reservoir (USR) Park. On a super hot weekday morning, after clearing some work, I decided to drop by this popular hunting ground for many butterfly photographers.

At a shady place near a stream, a Leea indica shrub was flowering though not profusely but good enough to attract quite a number of Pyroneura latoia latoia (Yellow Vein Lancer) to feed on the tiny white flowers.

What a pity that the hindwing apical area was torn otherwise this was a lovely shot that I like very much. There were at least half a dozen Yellow Vein Lancers. As the common name suggests, the veins of the wings are yellow in colour and can be seen quite clearly, making this species easily identifiable in the field. Here is another shot of a different individual. Make a guess of the background of the shots. (Answer will be given later)

I only saw this rare skipper Suastus everyx everyx a couple of times in the past few years. But each time I had no chance to snap a shot. I was very lucky that the "Butterfly Fairy" smiled on me and made this particular specimen appear and land on a leaf in front of me, never mind it was so suddently and in the shade. After getting a record shot, I tried to steady myself, very consciously holding my breath, making sure no shaking, snapping a few shots at a very low shutter speed of 1/40, f8. This is quite a small skipper. Its underside hindwing is predominantly pale whitish in colour with a large and prominent brown spot near space 1b. Also, the brownish dusted markings from hindwing apex to costal area make this skipper quite uniquely different from other brown or orange skippers.

This Tagiades japetus atticus (Common Snow Flat) was spotted feeding on another flowering Leea indica high up. A fierce Yellow Vein Lancer came and chased it away, forcing this Common Snow Flat to perch on the underside of a Leea indica leaf, just above my eye level - it was not a desirable angle to take any shot. A dark brown skipper with some small white spots near the forewing apex, Common Snow Flat tends to perch with its wings open and flat on the leaf.

There were at least a dozen of this tailless Arhopala species hanging around along a shady forest trail. Most of them were so alert that I could not get closer to them. When in flight, the metallic blue upperside could be seen quite clearly but I was not sure how big the blue patches were. This was suspected to be a Arhopala major major. A rather common damselfly in our forest, this not-so-big damselfly looks like a Prodasineura notostigma. Due to its rather dark abdomen and lack of striking colours, we might not notice its presence in front of us if we were not observant enough. They tend to perch on the tip of a leaf and did not fly far between perch.

There was a bunch of moth caterpillars hiding underneath a leaf. I have seen these caterpillars on the same leaf before but I have yet to find out what they are, both the leaf and the caterpillars.

This shot was taken along a shady forest trail. The surface of the foliage appeared to be eaten by these beetles (?).

This is likely a female dragonfly. I took this dorsal shot near a grass patch along the forest edge, hopefully someone would identify the species. More often then not, I encountered common forest butterflies at USR. But it is still one of the best forested areas that a rare species may just appear in front of us.

What Is Thriving @TPTP ?

I got back my malfunctioning SB800 Speedlight from the Nikon workshop yesterday afternoon. It cost me SG$160 to replace the light tube and the Hot-Shoe Mounting Plate. This morning, I was testing it at Toa Payoh Town Park (TPTP). A detailed write-up of the park is in the ButterflyCircle Blog.

The row of Ixora flowers were blooming but surprisingly the insect activity was close to a complete standstill. I decided to take a look at the pond.

It was a completely different scene at the pond. The dragonflies were darting and buzzing in the air.

A striking and intense all red dragonfly stood out very prominently amongst the green foliage. This is a male Crocothemis servilia. A row of dark markings on top of the abdomen is a distinguishing characteristic of this species.

I think this is a male Aethriamanta gracilis. The brown patches underneath its thorax and the bluish body produce a nice contrasting colour combination. Orthetrum Sabina was the largest dragonfly I spotted this morning. There were quite a number of them darting from place to place and one of them finally settling on top of a cement wall.
I took a close-up shot of the eyes, nothing special about this shot. Were the eyes telling us something? The problem with insects is that they have no facial expressions to convey their mood. This is a female dragonfly for sure but I am not sure which species it is. A dorsal view is needed for identifying the species however, she was not willing to come down to a lower level. Ischnura senegalensis is not a very big damselfly and it is quite well spread, garden ponds, wastelands and nature reserves can be their homes. The female of this species has different colour forms - this is the orange form.This was the the same specimen but shot in a different angle.
I was very lucky to spot a mating pair. The male is on top which has a short end section of the abdomen in blue. I guess the shot on the right below is a new-born of the same species (?).














I guess these shots are immature dragonflies or nymphs. I think TPTP is a great place for observing the behaviour of dragonflies and studying their life cycles.

This creature was floating and surfing on the water surface. I have no idea what it is - my first shot of a life form in water.

After shooting enough dragonflies along the pond, I went back to where the Ixora flowers were, waiting for butterflies and other terrestrial critters to greet me good morning.

I noticed a motionless black tiny critter on an Ixora leaf. I have not seen this before. However, when I viewed on the computer screen, I guess this looks like a juvenile praying mantid.

I finally got my first butterfly shot in the later part of the morning, a Anthene emolus goberus (Cillate Blue). What a disappointing day for me in terms of butterfly shooting.

So, you have got the answer to my question.

How Many Species of Insects Were There ?

Usually when I don’t have much time to venture deep into our nature reserve areas, I would just drop by MacRitchie Reservoir. During a leisure walk on a fine Sunday morning (30 May), along the boardwalk which runs along the reservoir edge , I was dazzled by quite a number of six-legged critters along my way.

Quite a few of this Ropalidia sumatrae paper wasps (thanks John for the id) were seen foraging on the leaf surface. I am not sure what they were looking for.


The shot here is the dorsal view of another specimen.
Another paper wasp of the same species - this time a side view shot.This is another Ropalidia species of a small paper wasp, roaming on the foliage. I guess these wasps could not stay still in the early morning, giving me a hard time taking good shots on them. This sweat bee (Nomia sp.) was feeding voraciously on the flowers of the Singapore Rhododendron (Melastoma malabathricum). It never stayed still, displaying its various acrobatic stunts on the flowers It was interesting and entertaining to look at how this bee pollinating the flowers. However, photographing it was a big challenge. In the field, I didn't realise the colourful bands on the abdomen – it must be the camera flash lights that bring up the colours.I often encountered this tiny metallic green-bodied and red-eyed long-legged fly in urban parks also. Though it stayed quite still at times, getting a good shot was rather difficult due to the small size of this fly. When this Planthopper was moving on the foliage with both wings wide open and swaying up and down, it was quite an interesting sight to see - like a fighter jet. This Ceriagrion cerinorubellum damselfly was always found along reservoir edge or waterlogged areas in the nature reserves. A pair of greenish-blue eyes, the blueish-green thorax and the orange abdomen tip make this damselfly very colourful and attractive. This is Rhyothemis obsolescens. Its reddish-brown wings with some dark markings are quite recognizable. Most of the time, I noticed that it usually perched with the wings depressed. However, this particular shot was taken when its wings were almost horizontal in the morning sun.Two more dragonfly shots taken along the forest edge. This blue dragonfly looks like a male of Orthetrum glaucum. Another commonly seen dragonfly which appears to be a female Trithemis aurora was also found in the weedy areas along the fringe of the forest. I just wanted to see how a close-up shot on the eyes of the dragonfly would look like as it was surprisingly cooperative, allowing me to shoot at the minimum focus distance of my Tamron 180 mm lens. This shot was far from good as it does not show enough details.

This is a tumbling flower beetle (Glipa malaccana ? ) resting on this beautiful Rabbit's-foot fern (Davallia denticulata). Not sure what those orange things are, spores ? Quite a number of them were found foraging on the fronds of the ferns. The beautiful fern looks like this and it was found growing from the base of a palm tree. My disappointment of not shooting any butterflies was tentatively suppressed when I saw a orange skipper hiding in the shade. The black markings on the hindwings and the absence of the apiculus at the tip of the antennae suggests that this orange skipper may be a Taractrocera archias quinta.The size and some obscure dark-dusted spots on the hindwing beneath indicate the possibility of a Oriens gola pseudolus (Common Darlet) skipper. As usual, I can never be 100% sure of the identification of an orange skipper. Ypthima huebneri (Common Four Ring) is smaller than the Common Three Ring (Ypthima pandocus corticaria) and Common Five Ring (Ypthima baldus newboldi) butterflies. They all can be found quite easily near the sunlit grassy areas along forest edges. Clearly, the four yellow-ringed eye spots on the hindwing beneath gives rise to its common name. I don’t know much about any eight-legged creature like this, of course this is a spider but beyond that I have no clue. So, how many different insects were there ?