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Butterfly trip to northern Thailand – Part III

Continue from Butterfly trip to northern Thailand Part II – Butterflies
Start from Butterfly trip to northern Thailand – Part I

Moths

We did our mothing at Soppong River Inn, Cave Lodge and a remote hill top.

At Soppong River Inn, the power supply was unstable as such we were only able to put up a blended mercury 120W light for a short period.

We also setup our moth screen on a remote hill top.

Unfortunately, our generator could only support 120W light :-(
There were not many moths, only 1 Sphingid, a few Arctiids and Geometrids.

At Cave Lodge, the power was stable enough for us to put up a 400W MH light.
The light attracted not only moths but cicadas, praying mantis, butterflies and also curious neighbors who thought we were having a party.

Below are some of the moths and insects that came to the screen :

We had 4 butterflies, including Lethe kansa and Badamia exclamationis.

Grasshopper 

Cicada
 

Dog Paw Moth – Plutodes sp.  This one is slightly different from the one we usually encounter in Malaysia – Plutodes malaysiana .

Pycnarmon sp

Gunda sp

Moth with long neck. Found out this is not a moth !
It is a Fishfly, Neochauliodes formosanus

Xyleutes mineus about to take off.

Apsarasa radians spreading its wings.

Below are some of the hawk moths photographed at Cave Lodge :

Ampelophaga dolichoides

Elibia dolichus

Eupanacra mydon

Marumba dyras

Callambulyx rubricosa - one of the more colorful hawk moths.

Clanis hyperion  - looks like Clanis undulosa from Fraser's Hill but 2/3 the size.

See more moth photos from this trip here.

I would like to thank Ian Kitching from BNHM for helping to id the hawkmoths

Back to Butterfly trip to northern Thailand – Part I

Butterfly trip to northern Thailand – Part II (Butterflies)

Continue from Part I

Many of the butterflies we saw during this trip look familiar yet different because they are of the continental subspecies e.g. The Clipper, The Common Indian Crow.

At Tham Lot :

Vilma and I taking photo of Symbrenthia lilaea, The Common Jester.

Preston and I taking photo of  Penthema darlisa melema -
The Three-colored Kaiser.

P. darlisa is a large butterfly, with wingspan of about 11cm and it is a Satyrid !  When I first saw it I thought it was a Chilasa or Paranticopsis !

Other butterflies photographed here include :

Euthalia monina kesava

A rare underside view of Dophla evelina, the Banded Marquis.
Junonia hierta hierta – The Yellow Pansy to me is the prettiest of all the Pansy in Malaysia and Thailand. This is the male

and this is the female

Junonia lemonias lemonias, Lemon Pansy, is the most common Pansy there.

Near our lodge, we saw these :

Elymnias hypermnestra tinctoria – The Common Palmfly.
This subspecies is very common here and is also found in northern part of Peninsula Malaysia. 

In flight, the female can be easily mistaken for Danaus chrysippus and D. genutia !

Tirumala limniace limniace – The Blue Tiger or Broad Tiger.

Castalius rosimon rosimon – The Common Pierrot

Orchus subvittatus subvittatus – The Tiger Hopper

On the last day we found an exposed hill top with lots of butterflies.
These are some of the butterflies I photographed :

Tagiades cohaerens cynthia – The Evan’s Snow Flat

Serangesa dasahara dashara – The Common Small Flat

Spindasis syama peguanus – The Club Silverline

Rohana tonkiniana siamensis - The Tonkin Black Prince

That’s me chasing after the Euploea core godartii, the Common Indian Crow.

The female godartii can be easily recognized by the a big white patch on the forewing tip.

Parthenos sylvia apicalis – The Clipper. Again this is different from the Malaysian subspecies lilacinus.

Vindula erota erota - The Cruiser

A mating pair of Lexias pardalis jadeitina – The Archduke

Parantica aglea melanoides – The Glassy Tiger

Papilio paris paris -The Paris Peacock. A lovely butterfly with green dusted forewing and abdomen,and shining blue-green sub-apical patch on the hind wing. Unfortunately this one has broken hind wings.

Troides aeacus aeacus (f) – Golden Birdwing, feeding on wild Clerodendron flower.

See more butterfly photos from this trip here.

=> Continue to Part III – Moths

Butterfly trip to northern Thailand – Part I

Early this month, a few of us from NSS spent 7 days at Pang Mapha district, Mae Hon Son province, Thailand.We took a Silkair flight to Chiang Mai, rented a 4WD and a generator and drove about 5 hours on highway 1095.  We stayed 3 days at Soppong River Inn and 4 days at Cave Lodge, both offer cheap and clean room with fantastic view and great home cook food.

I have lots of butterfly lifers as many of the butterflies in northern Thailand are either not found in Peninsula Malaysia or are of different subspecies.  We set up our moth light at Cave Lodge and got quite a decent amount of moths though not as many as in Fraser’s Hill.  All in all it has been a very fruitful exploratory trip.  We will definitely be back next year. 

Here goes the photos ..

Loading our luggage and generator onto the 4WD

The weather was good, road condition was great and traffic was light. It was like driving in Malaysia except there was no oil palm or rubber plantation on either side of the road.

We had our lunch break at Care Coffee cafe

Lunch menu and the house special dragon fruit ice sorbet. 
Enjoying a Thai meal

View from the cafe

At Soppong River Inn

My room

A very large lounge outside our rooms

and porch overlooking a ravine

While at Soppong River Inn, we met Aaron Kwok (one of the Cantopop Four Heavenly King).  He was there for a UNICEF program to help underprivileged kids from the villages.  He stayed just next to our room and was kind enough to pose for a photo with us.  This is definitely our ‘catch of the trip’ !

Cave Lodge
 

Our lodges

Another view of our lodge
That is me bird watching (yes I bird watch as well )in the morning

These are some of the places we went looking for butterflies

     

=> Continue to Part II on butterflies