Saturday, December 12, 2009

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 malayanusThe 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

 MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D5947 MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D5951

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

Tylophora sp-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D3938-640Tylophora sp-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D4008-640Tylophora sp-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D5953
Tylophora sp growing climbing onto mangrove trees

 
I saw three type of Glassy Tigers at KSNP :

Ideopsis vulgaris macrina – The Blue Glassy TigerIdeopsis vulgaris macrina-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D4005-360 

Parantica agleoides agleoides - The Dark Glassy Tiger Parantica agleoides agleoides-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D3943-320

and Ideopsis similis persimilis - The Dark Blue Glassy TigerIdeopsis vulgaris macrina-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D3949-360

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,Hypolycaena erylus teatus-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D3953-640

Autumn Leaf,Doleschallia bisaltide-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D3947-360

Long Banded SilverlineSpindasis lohita senama-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D4012-360

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
Danaus affinis malayanus-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D3974-640

Danaus affinis malayanus-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D3985-640

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

Wedelia biflora-MYKualaSelangor_20091203_D4018-640
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.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

if you go out again - please take a photograph of Ischnostemma selangorica, there is not a single photograph of this rare plant!

Best regards, Sigrid