Yet another butterfly trip to the DFNP

Haha, seems I've been going back to back to DFNP, which

is a good spot for butterflies. This time, finding the butts

was easier, thanks to KC Tsang, someone who posts on the

Bird Ecology Study Group, and his wife. They're suddenly

interested in butts. So moving along, The first interesting thing

I saw was these moth caterpillars on bird's nest fern.

There were a few common bluebottles and tailed jays flying

around the leea indica trees, which were far away so I

couldn't get a shot. There were a few yamfly butts as we moved

on.

At the muddy patch where cruisers and bluebottles

favour, we saw common mormons puddling restlessly and

a mating pair of Malayan eggfly, underneath a leaf.

And on a really grassy area much further on a small

skipper I cant identify. So, if anyone knows what it is, please

comment.

It was already 5pm when we got out of the trail. We were a bit

tired, and the butterflies seemed tired too. Just like this male common

mormon puddling at the beginning where we started.

To end off this post, a male common palmfly feeding on

Singapore rhododendron fruits.

DFNP again

I was back at DFNP looking for some butterflies. So this post

isn't so much a story to tell, but a collection of some lovely

butterflies.

The Chocolate grass yellow puddling on a damp wall.

A rare Acacia blue perched on the leaf of its host plant.

A Nacaduba calauria malayica puddling after the rain.

A Yamfly opening its wings slightly showing the vermilion

upperside.

Lastly, a female common mime in flight.

Here I've listed all the butterflies seen on my trip.(most couldn't

be photographed)

. chocolate grass yellow

. chocolate pansy

. peacock pansy

. common grass yellow

. psyche

. autumn leaf

. jacintha eggfly

. common palmfly

. pointed palmfly

. long brand bush brown

. common five ring

. common four ring

. abisara geza niya

. acacia blue

. nacaduba calauria malayica

. common imperial

. branded imperial

. common caerulean

. dingy line blue

. lesser grass blue

. bigg's brownie

. banded demon

. chestnut bob

. yellow vein lancer

. grass demon

. potanthus trachala tyteri

. common mime

. common mormon

Well that's the end of this post!

I'm Back!

Sorry this is a bit late but MERRY CHRISTMAS! To all the
readers of this blog. Below is your Christmas card.


Ho Ho ho

ON HOLIDAY !

FROM 5th DECEMBER TO 12th DECEMBER

WILL NOT BE POSTING
Please comment as much as you can!

The Photo of Today

It's the The Photo of the day post again! This time, the post
features a common lycaenid called the cycad blue. This newly
eclosed female butterfly has got crumpled wings. This
was sadly caused by human disturbance forcing the insect that
was drying its wings, to tumble to the ground.

Please comment.

A common mormon and a palm bob

I was at my Grandmother's place a bit earlier and it rained quite
heavily. It was just after the rain had stopped when I spotted
this female Common Mormon flying about the bougainvilleas.
It was hard to photograph as it kept on flying and did not land.
Well, I only got one good shot, so here it is.

It was yesterday that I shot the palm bob. I was walking with
my mother to a playground in hopes of finding common Mormons,
but instead, I found this Palm Bob on the surrounding foliage.

I hope you liked the photos, and please comment.

My New DSLR!

My father was really kind and bought me a CANON EOS D500!
It is totally awesome. It is 15 mega pixels. Anyway, Here are some photos.
Below is a ground nut flower I shot around my house.

I also shot this bougainvillea flower all dried-out but with good
quality bracts.

We also went to the SBG. That is where I took this male dawn
dropwing.

There were many spotted doves around, so I decided to
snatch a shot.

This post will end off with this pretty flower. (dunno what it is)

Please comment.

The Photo of Today

I'm back with the Wednesdaily post, The Photo of Today!

The photo of TODAY features a newly eclosed rare mangrove

tree nymph. It shows how butterflies simply hang from perches

motionlessly to dry their wings.(after eclosure)

This gives people great opportunities to photograph skittish ones,

or rare ones. Hope you liked the photo and stay tuned

because next Wednesday there will be another one!

Dairy Farm Nature Park

The new Dairy Farm Nature Park is totally awesome. Its

really the place for a butterfly lover and I have yet to see the

rare dark blue jungle glory there. Well, on my trip there, I

saw quite a few butterflies. We started at car park B. Walking

into the forest, chocolate grass yellows are always there to

welcome you. Here, pictured puddling with a three spot g. yellow.

Then, a passing swallowtail caught my eye. The blue helen!

I was really excited but it flew off into the canopy before long.

I did not have to walk very much before a glistening caerulean
showed up. I watched it for a while but couldn't shoot it as

it kept flying. Just then,(this is a moment of excitement) a rare and

sought after fluffy tit settled to sunbathe, as below.

It was awesome but like the the helen, it flew off shortly.

Feeding on plant sap a few meters away was a faded

common posy.

Notice that the tail has been cut off. Probably during a bird

attack. This shows how the tails can lengthen the butterfly's

life by tricking the birds into thinking the hindwing and tails

is the insect's head. After this was a lot of leaf litter, and yellows.

For a long time, the forest appeared completely still. There

were many common fauns along the way. Then, came sunlight.

The track had small rocks and had foliage surrounding.

That meant blues. First a common hedge blue puddling.

Then a pointed line blue. I snapped a shot while it was resting.

It too came down to puddle.

Now it is coming to the end, so there wasn't much. Not even

a chocolate grass yellow. We walked to right where we started,

and instead o the yellows, there was two male branded imperials

sharing some plant sap......

Well, That is the end of this post, so I hope you enjoyed

reading it!

Speedy Skippers

Have you ever come across something darting out from some leaves?
Or seen something like a moth? They could be skippers. Skippers are
butterflies with large heads and hairy bodies. Most have hooks
at the tips of their antenna and fly at high speeds. However, some
species fly similarly to bush browns, flitting around the ground.
One of the the more common skippers is the chestnut bob.

The palm bob is more common but is not featured in this post.

Below is the palm dart feeding on wild lantana at a forest fringe.

Some skippers look very alike so if coming across one, it is

better (I find ) to be patient and try to get a good shot of it first,

then when you are back home try to identify it on an online checklist,

with photographs. A beautiful skipper, the lesser dart.

If anyone wondered, awls and flats will not be included in this

post. This rare grass demon skipper's caterpillar feeds on the

turmeric, so it seems they like spicy food!

Well that is the end of this post and remember to look out for

skippers from now on if you don't!

The photo of Today

Here's a new series of posts about nature that will be published on
Wednesday every week. Something like a newspaper, just that
its not news and its really short. The photo of TODAY features
a common tiger being photographed by a little photographer
that I know. It shows how tame some butterflies can actually
be.

Hope you enjoyed the photo and stay tuned because
next Wednesday there will be another one!

Pygmy grass Blues and Lesser grass Blues, whats the diff?

Lesser grass blues are so common that anyone could just
accidentally step on one flying around a grassy roadside.
They really like the nectar of the Common vernonia and
Coat-button flowers. However, there is another butterfly
that accompanies the lesser grass blue at the roadsides.
That, is the Pygmy grass blue. They look very similar and
are often mistaken for one another. There are some
differences, and that's what I'll be talking about.

Above, is a Lesser grass blue, and below this
description, is the Pygmy grass blue. You can tell a
lesser from a pygmy by the spots on their hindwings.
That, meaning the underside. A lesser's spots circle
around a slightly curved line. However, the circle isn't
quite neat. It is rather broken. With 6 on the left
of the line, 2 above and 4 on the left. The lowest of
the 4 on the right of the line is tiny and often not well
seen. For a pygmy, the spots around that curvy line
are in a nice circle. There are 13 spots in total, 1 spot
that is tiny. The pygmy is also slightly smaller.

An extra thing to look out for: on the forewing of the
pygmy grass blue there is a deeply down-curved
line that the lesser grass blue does not have. There is
one exception. The pale grass blue. It is larger than the
two and has a more pronounced wing boarder.
So the next time you find a grass blue, be sure to know what it is!

p.s. : photo on top is a lesser grass blue taking off.

A spider......

I was watching a movie in my house when I spotted a
spider on our old sofa. Its front two legs were banded
back and white, and its hind two legs were brown. I was
only able to snatch a few shots as the spider kept moving.
I know the image isn't very high-quality, but that was all I got.
Yes, they are far away as my camera would not focus at that
distance. Here's the shot. ( finally )

Oh, and another one.

Please tell me its ID as I am not really a Spider-smart
person.

A day of days

I was up this morning when I saw a few small bees
flying around the front of my house. Here's a shot. I
don't know the exact ID, so please tell me in my Cbox or

on this post.

Outside my house, I spotted this little spider.

Again, ID please.

I have seen it before. It has an iridescent blue-green

head that looks purple at an angle. I had to go to my

friend's party today, at 2.30, so I left the house earlier

for lunch. It just so happened that we ate at a prata place

just next to the Lower Pierce Reservoir walk.( or something )

We had loads of time to kill so I went to take a look. My father

spotted a weird insect with long legs. I managed to get a shot of it.

What it actually is? I don't really know. I passed by

the ant plant, which is very distinctive.

Going on, I heard some noises. Rather far away, there

were many little birds flying around, presumably to

catch insects. I couldn't quite tell, but I am pretty sure

they were Asian paradise flycatchers, along with other

flycatchers. Below is a shot of a female. It is far away, so

I have circled it. Even then, it is hard to see its colours.

I know the photo is blurry, but I couldn't help it. :(

Here's another one.

After a while, we moved on. The sun started to shine

through the forest. About half a dozen sun skinks( I

think ) came out of their hiding places to sunbathe.

We had to leave.(remember? the party!) It was at

Safra Yishun Club, and I was going to be rock climbing.

At first, I didn't dare, so after a while, I went and had a

go. That's me.

I climbed pretty high, but did not reach the top.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the rock climbing wall really

towers. On my second try, I reached the top! It was

much harder higher up as there was less to grip.

On my third go, my father went with me. Below is a

shot of both of us reaching the top.

I made it all the way to the top. So did my father.

Coming down was much easier. It's like walking down

on a vertical wall at 40o . I hope to go there again.

P.S. : Okay, don't forget to tell me some ID!

Moth or a wasp or something else?

Last night, I was just in my house when I saw
something flying around. It landed on a wall. It
was an insect of some sort. The insect had long, thin
wings, and its body looked like a moth. However, the
wings were rather like the wings of a wasp. Here's a photo.
It was late and dark so I had to use flash, so it is very bright.

I was puzzled. A cross between a moth and a fly? What
could this strange thing be? Again, I need some ID.
Whoever knows what it is, please comment on this
post AND on my Cbox, to tell me its ID.
It had a gray-blue back. Another photo, but closer.

Okay I am so not an insect expert, so I need help.
I hope I see it again......