Saturday, October 8, 2011

A Gem at USR on a Sunny Saturday Morning


I met up with Cher Hern at the Upper Seletar Reservoir (USR) Park on a late but fine Saturday morning (24 Sept). I was there slightly early and bumped into a Gem along a shady trail. This beautiful lycaenid is Sumatran Gem (Poritia sumatrae sumatrae), a rather uncommon forest species that appeared to be in season since the beginning of the month.
Its metallic greenish-blue iridescence on the uppersides is breath-taking. While flapping its wings shortly after a perch, I snapped a quick shot. What a pity that it refused to open its wings after this shot.
This skittish Vinous Oakblue (Arhopala athada athada) was found along a shady trail. This is the only record shot I could manage before it disappeared from my sight.
We need to be observant if we want to spot this damselfly which looks like the Prodasineura notostigma. It can be found easily along a shady trail and occasionally on an open grass patch.
With a very distinctive broad yellow discal band across the hindwing, the Yellow Banded Awl (Hasora schoenherr chuza) can be easily identified in the field. A rather rare skipper that I don't see often, it tends to perch underneath the foliage.
This is another record shot of a Plain Banded Awl (Hasora vitta vitta) which showed a similar behaviour of resting underneath a leaf, usually above eye level.
A small robber fly was resting on a twig at the location where Cher Hern spotted a rare red-eyed skipper. We didn't have the luck to spot the skipper again but we were quite pleased to have this robber fly accompanying us.
Finally, I took a reluctant shot when this lonely spider was seen wandering on the leaf surface. Right now, I am a bit lazy to find out what species it is.
My last shot of the day before we went for lunch was this Fluffy Tit (Zeltus amasa maximinianus). While it was "hopping" around the Ixora bushes next to the washroom, I was lucky to snap a few quick shots when it perched at the right time and at the right place.

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