Butterfly Colours - Brown

One of my favourite colours, browns are some of the oldest colours in art, with umbers and siennas (clay pigments that derive their shades from iron oxide) being the amongst the first pigments that humans have used. Brown is also very common in butterflies, providing camoflage against predators. Some butterflies from the families Lycaenidae (the Blues) and Satyrnidae (the Browns, Arguses and Morphos) have beautiful variations of brown on their undersides and blues, purples or greens on their uppersides, which are concealed when the insect folds its wings upright. The colour of earth, bark and skin, brown is perhaps the true colour of nature, even though the brighter and somehow more charismatic green has been universally associated with it. Brown has also been tied to humility - perhaps one reason it was the party colour of the Nazi Party, which targeted the middle and working classes


(Left to Right, top to Bottom)

Common Disc Oakblue (Arhopala epimuta)
Dark Brand Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus)
The Knight (Lebadea martha parkeri)
The Plane (Bindahara phocides)
King Crow (Euploea phaenareta)
The Saturn (Zeuxidia amethystus)
Bamboo Tree Brown (Lethe europa)
Chocolate Sailor (Neptis harita)
Starry Bob (Iambrix stellifer)

A Rediscovery and The Prime Minister - UBIN DAY

Pulau Ubin: An offshore island from Singapore and our last kampung. It's Singapore before all the tall buildings went up - natural, wild and rustic. Last Sunday, we had a celebration of all things Ubin - organised by the amazing Grant Pereira and Ria Tan, Ubin Day 2014 saw a huge range of activities to bring the public closer to the heritage and biodiversity of the little island. Here's something you don't often see on your way to Ubin, a traffic jam!

ButterflyCircle was there to show some registered participants around Butterfly Hill and to teach them about butterflies. I was attached to a really wonderful group of students and their enthusiastic teacher, who were there to learn more in order to set up a butterfly garden. We saw some pretty cool things: a Mottled Emigrant came to lay eggs just in front of us, we found a number of uncommon butterflies and I got them to get right up close with the butterflies that were willing. One of the rarer species around was this form-agenor female of the Great Mormon.

This stunning giant was laying eggs on the pomelo bush and caught everyone's attention. The great mormon is polymorphic, so the female occurs in many greatly differing forms, some of which have not been seen in years. Better still, my group got to see something extremely special - a rediscovery! A strikingly patterned butterfly was flitting incessantly around a tree trunk and I knew straight away that we had something new. And it was - a rediscovery for Singapore, the Malayan Nawab (polyura moori)! It has been suspected to still be extant here and now we have the proof. 

The excitement, however, didn't stop there. We were extremely honoured to have a different kind of visitor to the hill, The Prime Minister of Singapore. He - along with his troop of bodyguards, cameramen and the press - came to find out more about the hill and it's fluttering inhabitants. We took him around on a little tour and shared our knowledge of butterflies with him. What struck me was how willing he was to talk to us and hear our thoughts. Here's me sharing some of the places I love to go for butterflies.

Photo by Mr Loke PF

He was also incredibly friendly and down to earth so after having a short discussion about butterflies, we just had to take some pictures with him. Yes, by pictures, I mean we-fies. It's not everyday that you get to do this! There I am, beaming from the back. As you can see, height is something I don't have very much of...

Photo by Lemon TYK, whose in front

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also announced at the opening of the event, several plans for Ubin which were mostly about preserving the rustic charm of Ubin and enhancing it. I think it is great that the government is getting involved in the conservation of natural places like Ubin. Hopefully, with events like Ubin Day, more people will understand and respect nature and maybe even get down to help in the race to conserve. I had an amazing time on Ubin Day, all thanks to Mr Khew for inviting me and of course, Mr Grant and Ria for their inexhaustible passion and energy. Here's to the wilderness!

The Malay Dartlet

It stirred up quite a bit of hype when it first appeared in Singapore in 2011; Serene Ng, Senior Biodiversity Officer of the National Biodiversity Centre of Nparks took a picture of a strange skipper - dark ochreous brown with clearly defined orange patches on both wings. It was a Malay Dartlet, a new discovery! I remember rushing over to the place it was found the weekend after the news reached me. I never got the shots I was after during the time that the Malay Dartlet colony was there but just recently, three years later, I saw it again - and this time it came to me.

I was shooting some moths attending to an array of Leea indica flowers, when a skipper began circling the bush at rapid speeds. I was shocked to see a Malay dartlet when it landed - I was in Dairy Farm Nature Park; far away from where it was discovered so many years ago. It was shortly joined by yet another Malay dartlet. They stopped at each flower for just a few seconds before moving on to the next but always came back to the same few favourite blooms. After five or ten minutes of feeding, they would fly off somewhere to sunbathe or rest in the shade.

It is encouraging that this rare butterfly has spread across the island and is no longer confined to a single grassland. However, it is not all that surpising on hindsight. The Malay dartlet caterpillars feed on a common grass, Ottochloa nodosa, that is found in many places here. Regrettably, I did not scout the area for that grass. Having two of them there could mean that they are breeding nearby. I will just have take note the next time! And for a window into the Malay dartlet's fascinating life history: Uncle Horace's wonderful post.


PS: It's been a while since I've posted! Sorry for those two dead months. School's getting busier and I will be taking my exams in a few weeks. Oh well.

The Sky Blue

It was a sad and wet wash-out day until a small but brilliantly blue piece of the sky fluttered in front of me. It was one of our more oddly named butterflies, the Sky Blue, Jamides caeruleus.

I find it strange that where there are thousands of butterflies with 'sky blue' uppersides, this one took the title. There's no doubt, however, that it deserves the name. When it flies, the bright blue upperside almost glows. It didn't open its wings for me but it did give me a glimpse of the stunning blue when it shuffled its hindwings up and down.

The sky blue is an uncommon forest butterfly in Singapore but can be found around flowering Yellow Saraca trees (saraca cauliflora), their larval host plant. The caterpillars feed on the orange-yellow flowers, which grow in large clusters around the trunk and the larger branches. Here is a beautifully detailed account of the butterfly's life history. 

The sky blue has a fluttering flight and usually does not fly above a metre, staying close to the ground, unless it is very disturbed. I initially thought this one was a Glistening Caerulean (J. elpis), a close cousin of the sky blue. The two are superficially similar and only after close scrutiny and consulting the butterfly expert, Dr  
Seow, did I find out it's real identity. 

Photographing it was another challenge but fortunately it stayed very still even when there were countless joggers running past it. I even managed to coax it onto my finger! Unusually, a lady walking by came to see what I was shooting. More often than not, people would look over when they see a boy with a huge camera aiming at some leaves but walk by when they can't see what about the leaves is so interesting. Lucky for the lady, who took lots of pictures of it on her phone; you don't often run into a sky blue!

Another Good Day

It looks like the hot weather is here to stay. My recent visit to Dairy Farm Nature Park was quite eventful, even though I spent most of the time hiding in the shade from the merciless sun. A fair bit of the activity was actually at the entrance of the park, where the human traffic was very high! The first butterfly was a pristine Malayan Sunbeam.  














When I accidentally disturbed it, it flew down to the concrete pavement to puddle. Every few seconds, someone would walk past and frighten it, making it difficult to get a picture of. There seems to have been quite a few sightings of sunbeams recently.














After a while, it got tired of all the people walking by and retreated to some taller shrubs, way out of my reach. 














There were a number of Malayan Eggflies at the entrance too. Their caterpillar hostplant, Pipturus Argentus (Australian Mulberry), must grow nearby since I always see them flying there. The Malayan eggfly occurs in different forms. This one, with a whitened patch on the hindwing, is form nivas.














The females of this species are known to guard their eggs, which they lay by the hundreds, until they perish. Malayan eggflies are highly territorial insects and constantly fly out to attack intruders to the "air space", including other individuals of the species. This can be quite a nuisance for butterfly photographers, for they sometimes get excited by falling leaves! This is another form, form anomala.














Where the cyclists were washing their shoes, this little Fluffy Tit came down to puddle. Its long feathery tails were fluttering in the wind. Unlike the sunbeam, it was not  at all bothered by the presence of people walking by.




























After spending quite some time lying flat on the ground and shooting it, I walked up the main dirt road all the way until I hit the flower patch at the top of the hill. It was disappointingly quiet and besides a few monkeys, there was hardly anything to see. I watched this male Common Mormon chase a female relentlessly for a while.

She eventually grew tired of him and sped off. Later, I found her feeding at a cluster of pagoda flowers. She must have been very tired and hungry from being chased by the male and spent a long time at the flowers to re-fuel.

Back at the entrance of the park, there were numerous little blues puddling on the road. They were wary and flew off at the slightest disturbance. When puddling, they also hardly stood still and were crawling around a fair bit. This male Pointed Line Blue was one of the more cooperative models.

Looking back at my pictures from Dairy Farm in 2009, when my family and I first visited it, the nature park seems to have always been a great place for butterflies. I think its very close proximity to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve allows it to have a great range of forest plants and trees, which helps to attract butterflies; they usually stay near their caterpillar host plants. I can't believe that I've been butterfly-blogging for five years already. Onward!

















(This is near the entrance, in 2009. It still looks the same!)

Butterfly Colours - Orange

Interestingly, the colour Orange derives its name from the orange fruit (citrus sp) and not the other way around. While there is no butterfly group known as 'the oranges', orange is one of the most common butterfly colours, except for in Swallowtails (papilionidae), where it is usually only found in small spots. The colour is bright and often symbolises fun and entertainment. For butterflies, orange is often used as a warning colour, like red and yellow. Many milkweed butterflies, such as the ever-popular Monarch, use this colour to advertise their poisonousness. 


(Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
The Leopard, Common Tiger, Fluffy Tit, Common Posy, Cruiser, Burmese Lascar,
Common Sailor, Yamfly, Tawny Coster

Back to Butterflying

If birdwatching can surpass grammar to become 'birding', I don't see why butterfly watching can't! My examinations finished just last week and I've been able to return to butterflying. It seems like perfect timing too, for the butterfly numbers are on the rise. Many butterflies can be seen flying by the roads. The forests are getting exciting too, with some uncommon species turning up. One of them, the green oakblue, seems to be doing well this year. This is a female sunbathing.

Where's the green? On the male's upperside. Unfortunately, I didn't see any males that day. There were a number of females out though and I suspect they were out to lay eggs. They would flutter around a certain bush and land in obscure places. I did not witness any actual egg-laying but the behaviour points to it. After a while of that, they would fly off to a nearby shrub and spread their wings flat. It is truly a spectacular sight. The underside is not quite as brilliant.

There were a number of Malayan Sunbeams out too. Sunbeams are fast flying blues that are usually seen on damp patches on the ground. We have two species occurring here, one being the Malaysian and the other, the Sumatran sunbeam. The latter is more often found in mangrove forests. Underneath, the Malayan sunbeam is silvery-white, peppered with lots of tiny black spots. The legs are unique too; they look rather like candy canes!

Like the green oakblue, their name comes from the upperside, which is bright vermillion. The clashing colours make them very conspicuous in flight. Most of the time, sunbeams prefer to open their wings in the late afternoon. This one only gave me a peek.

Another white-ish butterfly, the Malayan, referred to as the Malayan Pied Blue in Dr. Kirton's new butterfly book, was fluttering nearby. It is a tiny butterfly, with a forewing length of only 1cm. While it may be uncommon, it can be found in parks and gardens and not just in forests. Interestingly, it has an Australian counterpart, megisba strongyle, the Pied Blue, which looks very similar. The species we have here is m. malaya.

I was surprised to bump into one of my favourite butterflies, the
bifid plushblue. It is an elusive member of the flos genus, which I have gone on and on about before. I absolutely love the colour variations on the underside. This one was a very pristine specimen and the colours were even brighter. It disliked my flash, jumping every time I fired a shot, so this picture was taken with my shaky hands in the low light.

Along with the rising temperatures that the butterflies love, the humidity levels are increasing too. It is become quite unbearable to be outside; the air isn't just hot, it's wet too. I suppose that is just one of the little inconveniences we have to put up with to live amongst the rich diversity of tropical butterflies!

The New Butterfly Book!

A new book has been born! The latest addition to the family, 
Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, was 
launched on Thursday, the 24th of April, at the iconic Gardens by 
The Bay.The book is absolutely beautiful. It was a very special 
moment for the butterfly scene over here!

The launch itself was invite-only but it was nice and informal, just
how I would've wanted it. Pansing Distribution generously ordered
for a buffet to grace the event too. After a few all but boring 
speeches, we lined up eagerly to get our copies signed. The company
was amazing. I also had the chance to meet nature legends like Ria 
Tan, Professor Peter Ng, the author himself, Dr Kirton and so many 
others. Here's me, overjoyed, with Dr Kirton!

(image courtesy of Mr Khew Sin Khoon)

The book, covering a total of 280 species from the three countries,
is a 'taster' to the fascinating butterflies from the region. The new
common names appointed in the book may spark a little controversy
but Dr Kirton gracefully justified his decisions during his speech.
The book boasts many lovely photographs, describtions on 
appearance, distribution, subspecies and habits, as well as 
interesting sections on butterfly ecology. It is the fourth book on the 
butterflies of Singapore. Here is my line-up. 

It's not an assumption to say that bird books outnumber butterfly 
ones heavily in the region and in the world too. This new book is not 
just a new reference; it's a symbol of the passion some people out 
there have for these flying jewels. Also, I am honoured to be one of 
the photo contributors to the book! Butterfly watching is growing in 
popularity. I think that it's great to have more butterfly books around
to fuel the growing number of 'butterfly people.

Here's a more detailed account of the event since mine's not the 
meatiest and this is the website for John Beaufoy Publishing.


Special thanks and acknowledgements to: John Beaufoy Publishing 
                                                              Dr Lawrence Kirton
                                                              Pansing Distribution Pte Ltd
                                                              Gardens by the Bay

The Pale Grass Blue

I would love to do some serious out-in-the-forest shooting but
my examinations are in a mere two week's time. So, I have done
some outside-the-house shooting instead. The roadside grass 
patches have sprouted with weeds lately in the mood swing 
weather. One of them is the vernonia cinerea (the common 
vernonia). Lots of little blues have been fluttering around the 
cheerful flowers.















The Pale Grass Blue is the largest of our three 'grass blues'; small
butterflies that frequent the roadsides. This species was discovered
in Singapore in 2001 and has since become quite the commoner.
They have a weak and fluttering flight and stay close to the ground.
Being common and not very showy, they, along with the other grass 
blues, are often overlooked. 

I think it was a blessing that I couldn't get out in pursuit of 
more exotic butterflies; it let me appreciate the beauty of the
little creatures I so often ignore. It also brought back some 
happy memories - I used to pick bunches of common vernonia for 
my mother back when I was... 5? They'd all be wilted by the time 
they got home though. Later on I would stop on the pavement to 
watch the little grass blues go about their lives. It was nice to 
do it all again. (except this time I left the weed picking out) :)

Butterfly Colours - Yellow

Following the yellow trend: Bright and sunny yellow butterflies are 
the main characteristic of the family pieridae; so much that they 
are collectively known as 'the whites and yellows'. In Singapore, we 
have six species of 'grass yellow'. As the name suggests, they are 
little dots of yellow that flutter around grass. Very often, they can 
be seen flying at the roadside while cars whizz by. Yellow is the 
lightest colour on the colour wheel and is usually a symbol of 
happiness and optimism. It is a highly visible colour and many 
insects use it as an aposematic, or warning, colour to ward 
predators off. In the same way, yellow was used as a 
representation of betrayal in the Renaissance. 

(Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
Anderson's Grass Yellow, Common Birdwing, Forest Grass Yellow, Bush Hopper, Tree Yellow, Lime Butterfly, Chocolate Grass Yellow, Yellow Grass Dart, Three Spot Grass Yellow