November at Fraser’s Hill

After 2 days at Maxwell Hill, we headed south to Fraser’s Hill, our favorite highland get away. 

Oct-Nov is the 2nd durian season in Malaysia and the road from Maxwell to Fraser’s was lined with stalls selling durians. The durians were dirt cheap, going for RM3-5 each.  We stopped along the road and ate till our heat’s content and ‘ta pao’ some to Frasers.  The durians were soooo good and we paid only RM40 for 10 ! 

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On our way up the hill we saw both the male and female Wanderer - Pareronia valeria lutescens ! The female mimics the Yellow Glassy Tiger – Parantica aspasia aspasia.

 

By the time we reached our bungalow, the whole place was surrounded by mist !

The next day we headed to our favorite Raub waterfall.

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There I saw my butterfly lifer of the trip – a very rare male Elymnias esaca andersonii. Unlike the larvae of other Elymnias which feed on Palms, this one feeds on the Bamboo Orchid - Arundina graminifolia  !

 

Along the way we saw a Plain Lacewing

and a few male Wanderers feeding on Hibiscus flowers.

The weather was less than ideal for moths but I still had many moth lifers. This hawkmoth - Acherontiini Agrius which we only noticed when we were packing up our moth screen, is the #47 hawkmoths we have recorded at Fraser’s Hill.

other intersting moths we saw include :

The lovely Luna moth – male Actias maenas.

A large Noctuid moth - Phyllodes verhuelli , with a forewing length of about 90mm.

A colourful Arctiid moth - Areas galactina.

This is my 5th and last trip to Fraser’s Hill for 2009 and I look forward to going back there next year.

Bukit Larut aka Maxwell Hill

Maxwell Hill is the oldest and least developed of all the hill stations in Malaysia. It is about 1250m above sea level and the temperature is about the same as Fraser’s Hill, between 19-25C. 

The virgin jungle reserved is supposedly rich in wildlife with 25 species of mammals and more than 200 species of birds recorded at Bukit Larut and around its foothills.

Most of us either have not been to Maxwell Hill or were there  many years ago so we decided to make a trip there in late Novermber to see if the wildlife there is as good as Fraser’s Hill.

We depart early as it is a long drive from Singapore and the last transport up the hill departs at 3pm !  We arrived at the park office at 2+, just in time for the last transport up the hill.  We transferred our baggage into a cart and hopped onto a jeep. 

The ride up the hill top was about 30+ minutes, through very bumpy, steep and whining road.  We regretted leaving our camera bags in the cart and wondered if our cameras will survive the journey.

 

After what felt like a never ending roller coaster ride, we finally arrived at our bungalow, Angkasa, in one piece.  All our cameras survived the trip, thanks to our padded camera bags.

Jee Kin checking to see if everything is intact. 

Angkasa is 1036m above sea level -

The front of our bungalow -

Another view of the bungalow - 

Looking out from the bungalow -

In the 2 days there we saw many interesting wild life :

Butterflies :

Ancistroides armatusFemale Jacintha EggflyRed HelenSmaller Wood Nymph
Yellow Glassy Tiger
Hasora salanga
     

Moths -the larger and more colorful ones:

Antheraea helferi Antheraea larrisa ridlyi
Ambulyx tattina
Kunugia sp 
Underside of Eupterote sp

Other wildlife:

Ashy Minivet

Black-throated Sunbird
Bushy Crested hornbill Dusky LangurSlow Loris Giant Flying SquirrelPope's Pit Viper
King Cobra

These are just a sample of what we saw during our two days at Maxwell.  There are places that we did not have time to explore and we will definitely go back next year to continue where we left off.

Tiger at Kuala Selangor Nature Park

I am referring to the milkweed ‘tiger’ butterfly from the Danainae sub-family, specifically the Mangrove Tiger butterfly - Danaus affinis malayanus.  The Mangrove Tiger is an endangered species and is only found at 2 locations in Malaysia – Kuala Selangor Nature Park (KSNP) and Kuala Kurau, Perak.

I have always wanted to see this butterfly so armed with a GPS, I drove 1.5 hrs from KL to KSNP, arriving at 11:30am.

Map of KSNP

 

Along the bund, I saw lots of Tylophora sp, the larva host plant of the Ideopsis and Parantica ‘Glassy Tiger’.

Tylophora sp growing climbing onto mangrove trees

 
I saw three type of Glassy Tigers at KSNP :

Ideopsis vulgaris macrina – The Blue Glassy Tiger 

Parantica agleoides agleoides - The Dark Glassy Tiger

and Ideopsis similis persimilis - The Dark Blue Glassy Tiger

but there were no sign of the Mangrove Tiger. As I made my way towards to seaward side of the bund, I saw butterflies which are commonly found at mangrove forest  :

Common Tit,

Autumn Leaf,

Long Banded Silverline

After 2 hours of walking, at about 1:30pm at the mid section of the seaward side of the bund, a male Mangrove Tiger suddenly appear !

Danaus affinis malayanus - Mangrove Tiger

A few more started appearing and feeding on the flower of the Sea Ox Eye, Wedelia biflora.

All in all I saw about 8 individuals. I was hoping to see the larva host plant - Ischnostemma selangorica but I cound’t find any along the bund :-(.  Time was running out and I had an appointment at 4pm in KL so I headed back to the car.

My mission the next time I come back to KSNP is to locate and photograph the larva host plan Ischnostemma selangorica.

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• Winged wonder – The Mangrove Tiger butterfly