June Fraser’s Hill adventure

Gopeng – Fraser’s Hill Trip , Jun 2009 Part 3/3

Sunset at Fraser’s Hill along the new road

After Gopeng, we drove to Fraser’s Hill and spent a few days at our ‘home-away-from-home’.  On arrival at the bungalow, the smell of durians greeted us !  Mrs Lim knew we are crazy about durians and have secured 5 local durians for us ! 

We had the durians after our dinner and breakfast.
The next day, more durians were delivered to the Bungalow !
We ate as much as we could and kept the remainder for supper for our mid-night outings.

A sample of the food we had during our stay

I have a few moth lifers, the highlight being Elibia dolichus (m).

The rest of the lifers are smaller moths which are too many to mention.  Below are some of the more colourful and interesting moths we saw during the trip :

For butterflies I didn’t have any lifer but there were still a few good ones.  I managed a record shot of the Yellow Orange Tip (Ixias pyrene) which I only managed to catch a glimpse in my May trip.  This will go on my ‘to shoot list’ for future trips.

Below are some ‘unusual’ butterfly shots from the trip …

The Red Calihp (Enispe intermedia), flapping its wings and showing the upperside.

The Tailed Judy (Abisara neophron) in flight
 

Tawny Palmfly (Elymnias panthera) taking off

Malayan Branded Yamfly (Yasoda pita) taking off

The Malayan Owl (Neorina lowii) taking off

I also managed to take some bird shots :

A pair of Greater Yellownape Woodpecker

and a Great Hornbill in flight !

This is yet another fantastic and fruitful trip to Malaysia !
 
=> Go to Part 2/3 – “Butterflies of Gopeng“
=> Go to Part 1/3 – “Gopeng - Rafflesia, Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing and Durians”

 

Butterflies of Gopeng

Gopeng – Fraser’s Hill Trip , Jun 2009 Part 2/3 

Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing

Burara etelka – Great Orange Awlet, my lifer at Gopeng!
It is huge, almost twice the size of Orange Awlet.

Kallima limborgii – The Leaf Butterfly

Faunis kirata – The Broad Striped Faun, one of the more uncommon Faun.
 

Xanthotaenia busiris – Yellow Barred

Yellow Barred caterpillar


Mooreana trichoneura – The Yellow Flat


Pseudocoladenia dan – The Fulvous Pied Flat

=> Go to Part 1/3 - “Gopeng - Rafflesia, Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing and Durians”
=> Go to Part 3/3 - “June Fraser’s Hill adventure”

Gopeng - Rafflesia, Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing and Durians

Gopeng – Fraser’s Hill Trip , Jun 2009 Part 1/3

Last month I few of us went to Gopeng and Fraser’s Hill.

I wanted to go back to Gopeng to see the Rafflesia since I missed it the last time.  The other excuse for making yet another trip to Gopeng/FH is the promise of free durians by the Gopeng resort owner and bungalow care taker at Fraser’s Hill.

I am very pleased with this trip as I finally saw my first Rafflesia, saw more RBB than I have ever seen and had the tastiest, freshest and best durians !

Here goes the photos ..

Kwok Wai Marcus and I at the ‘resort’

To see the Rafflesia we had to hike 600ft up
Along the way we saw a wild Begonia 
a plant with bright purple underside
and a few RBB caterpillars

and finally Rafflesia cantleyi !!
Unfortunately one has past its life span and the other one will only open in a day or two :-(

as we moved on we saw many Rafflesia flower buds on a vine !

and finally one that just bloomed ! Yahoo !!

A close-up shot of the flower bud.

On the way back we stop by the the Rajah Brooke’s area.  There were even more RBBs than our previous trip !!!

The durians at Gopeng were great. We had kampong durians.  We also picked up a few on our night outing and had them for breakfast.

We also saw a few stick insects:

Stheneboea repudiosa eating the leaf of Asystasia gangetica.

A pair of Abrosoma festinatum doing their business – Sex and Food !

one with a bright blue lateral stripe.

and many frogs and toads

=> Go to Part 2/3 – “Butterflies of Gopeng”

Rare hawk moth found at HDB void deck

Last Sunday over breakfast at a coffee shop, Simon mentioned he saw a hawk moth at the void deck at Toh Yi drive.  He showed me the photo on his phone and it is a species which I have not seen before. 

The moth was eventually identified as as Meganoton nyctiphanes (Walker, 1856), the only species of Meganoton in Singapore and an uncommon hawk moth !

Well done Simon !

The other Meganotons (photos below) that are commonly seen in Malaysia are M. analis and M. rubescens

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Meganoton analis, Fraser’s Hill, 2008 

 

Meganoton rubescens, Fraser’s Hill, 2008