Butterflies at Dairy Farm Park (May - June) 2019

In the past two months (May and June 2019), I visited Dairy Farm Park on a few Sunday mornings either hiking up to the peak of our highest mountain or just for butterfly-hunting.    

Good to see a lot more people came to the park these days - in fact, many bird watchers and photographers always gathered at the furthest entrance point of the Wallace Trail. I was told that that area was good for watching and shooting birds.

On one particular Sunday morning in early May, I came out from the Wallace Trail and moved towards Car Park B. At the open space near the Wallace Education Centre,  I noticed a small lycaenid fluttering rather weakly in the air. I had no clue about what it was.  Out of curiosity, I watched and followed it closely until it landed - I was very surprised to see a rather pristine  Logania marmorata damis (The Pale Mottle) rested on a tiny rock - this is not the usual  hehaviour shown by this species.

There were a few small Blues fluttering at the ground level near the toilet at Car Park B. With patience, I managed to snapped some shots. I was particularly excited to shoot a Four-line Blue as I have not seen one for a long time.

In fact, this shot generated very profound discussions about its identity -  whether it is the Nacaduba hermus or the  N. pendleburyi in ButterflyCircle Forum here.

If you observe carefully, you notice that this Nacaduba species has 6 white lines in the forewing. This is perhaps a Rounded Six-line Blue (Nacaduba berenice icena).

Another Nacaduba species was shot in early June outside the toilet. Noticing the differences in the white striae, I suspect this is the N. beroe neon. 

Another look-alike lycaenid, this is  Jamides alecto ageladas (The Metallic Caerulean) also found puddling on the ground.

The blue iridescence on the upperside wings could be seen on this shot.

This Bush Brown, perhaps the Mycalesis mineus macromalayana was "hopping" around along a row of shrubs in front of the Wallace Education Centre. I ignored it until it perched on a nice position; long enough for me to snap a quick shot.  

This small tailed lycaenid was found puddling at a muddy spot along the Wallace Trail.  The ochreous straie on both wings are the characteristics of the Common Line Blue (Prosotas nora superdates.)

Same background but a different butterfly from the same genus, this is a very common lycaenid called the Tailess Line Blue (Prosotas dubiosa lumpura).

Another look-alike, but this is from another genus - the Ionolyce helicon merguiana (The Pointed Line Blue) is quite common in forested areas.  Correction - this is another  N. beroe neon (Thanks Dr Seow from ButterflyCircle)

Whenever a common forest shrub named Leea indica is flowering, its tiny white flowers would attract butterflies. This is Tagiades japetus atticus (Common Snow Flat) feeding on the small flowers.

A Large Snow Flat (Tagiades gana gana) also found on the same tree, feeding voraciously on the flowers.

This was my first sighting of an elegant butterfly at Dairy Farm Park, the Royal Assyrian (Terinos terpander robertsia) - a rather uncommon forest denizen. Being too active and skittish, it never presented me a nice and nearer perch for me to take better shots.

   An upperside shot.

The Cruiser (Vindula dejone erotella) is a large forest butterfly from the nymphalidae family. The male likes to puddle on the moist ground. 

This dark brown skipper, The Banded Demon (Notocrypta paralysos vrians)  is a very fast flyer but it tends to perch quite frequently. This is a record shot when it rested on a high perch in a shady area.

 Another common skipper the Palm Bob (Suastus gremius gremius) , much smaller than the Banded Demon. 

Lastly, two non-butterfly shots a tiny beetle and a snail to wrap up this long-overdue blog post.

Butterflies Along Tung O Ancient Trail (東澳古道) (up to San Tau Village)

On two consecutive Saturday afternoons (29 Sept and 6 Oct), while I was on my way back from and to the airport, I made a slight detour to San Tau Village, next to the Yat Tung estate (逸東邨) in Lantau Island. Yat Tung estate is just a short bus ride (Bus 38) from  the Tung Chung bus station. 

I strolled along the Tung O Ancient Trail (東澳古道) which runs along the northern coastline of  the Lantau Island 

The Hau Wong Temple (侯王宮) which was built during the Qing Dynasty period was one of the historical sites along the 15-km long Tung O Ancient Trail - a favorite trail among hikers. 

The Quaker (Neopithecops zalmora zalmora) is a permannent resident at a location near the Hau Wong Temple (侯王宮) -  there were a few of them fluttering around some small flower buds.

A pair of Quaker each took care of its own food source.

There was a row of pea plants near an open grass patch outside a playground  A Pea Blue (Lampides boeticus) was resting on a blade of grass.

Zizeeria maha (Pale Grass Blue) is a common lycaenid in Hong Kong. If we pay attention to those small butterflies fluttering around wild flowers on the ground, we should be able to find them easily.

Continued walking along the trail for a couple of minutes, I came to a concrete bridge - the mangrove vegetation covers almost the whole river banks.

Butterfly activities were generally low on both occasions. Apart from a few skippers, there were very few other species crossing my path. This rather pristine Bush Hopper ( Ampittia dioscorides etura ) was kind enough for me to snap a few shots.

Two other brown skippers presented their pose for me too  - they look like the Borbo cinnara.

 Another specimen was found nearby on a leaf.

A fast-flying skipper which looks like a Parnara ganga was seen looking for its host plant - it did find the type of grass to lay its egg.

Chilades lajus is another common lycaenid along the coastal area

Apart from butterflies, other insects appeared in front of me would be my targets too. This  colourful beetle caught my attention when it perched above my head - thus making it rather hard a well- composed shot.

An on-coming passer-by alerted me that there was a snake about 50m ahead of me. Indeed, a rather slender green snake with some red tint on the skin was crawling along the kerb. I have no idea if it is poisonous.

Soon, I reached one of the many old villages along this ancient trail -  the San Tau  (䃟頭) village - I noticed that there were quite a number of vacant houses and some of them were in a dilapidated state.

A Snow Flat, the Tagiades litigiousus came out to welcome me to the village.

The Blue-spotted Crow (Euploea midamus midamus) was found feeding on some wild Lantan flowers beside a village house.

Due to time constraint on both occassions, I had to return to Tung Chung. Indeed, this long ancent trial has a lot to offer to the hikers and photographers as it runs through many old villages such as I hope to complete the whole trail in the near future.

A Wet Day of Butterfly Outing at 上水古洞, Hong Kong

On 28 May, I met up with my usual butterfly-photogaphy enthusiasts at Sheuang Shui (上水) MTR station before hopping onto the green mini bus 51K to 上水古洞 to look for the Polygonia c-aureum (黃鉤蛺蝶 ). After about 20 minutes, we alighted at The Hong Kong Girl Guides Association - Jockey Club Beas River Lodge.

We crossed a river and walked towards  a village. Though it was dirzzling, many of us just continued to hunt for our primary target -  thge Polygonia c-aureum. There was quite a number of them, flitting amongst the wild vegetation, along the river banks.

Without sunshine, they had the tendency to fold up their wings. So getting an upperside shot was not  easy.

I noticed an interesting moment. I guess a male was trying to mate with a female. But appearently, the female was not keen.

The male gave up and  rested with open wings for a few seconds.

The weather was overcast with intermitten rains throughout the whole morning. When the passing rain became heavy, we had to look for "shelters" under big trees. While waiting for the rain to stop under a big banana leaf, I spotted this Banana Skipper (Erionota torus) .

This Discophora sondaica  (鳳眼方環蝶)was also waiting for the rain to stop - it was just a few meters away from me.

 

When there was intermitten sunshine, I could see more butterflies feeding on the Bidens flowers along the roadside. A familiar butterfly to me, the Ypthima baldus (矍眼蝶 ) was busy feeding on the flower,  allowing me to compose some shots.

Usually I have uncertainty identifying an orange skipper - this shot looks like the Telicota bambusae according to Dr Seow from ButterflyCircle .

I got one underside shot before it scooted off  the moment the flashlight was fired.

Another yellow skipper which looks like the T.  bambusae again but it preferred  the yellow wild daisy  flowers instead.

Identifying a brown skipper is very challenging too.  This small guy  could be the Parnara bada.

Many wild flowers, especaially the white Bidens flowers blooming along the Shueng Yue River attracted some butterflies. 

I noticed that this Catopsilia pomona taking a short nap after it had enough nectar from the flowers.

Many photographers were waiting at infront of some rows of Bidens flowers to nail the  Papilio xuthus. This fellow was fair to everyone as it visited different flowers, giving everyone a fair chance to snap a few shots.

In every outing, apart from butterflies, if we look around carefully, it is not difficult to find other critters also. A beetle was foraging on a flower.  

 A planthopper.  
 A beautiful  but common day-flying moth which I have not identified it