Saturday, August 22, 2009

Lime Butterfly @ West Coast

20090619_2613-320If you come across a Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus) around the West Coast Road area, it is very likely one of my wife, Wai Yen’s babies.

You see Wai Yen has been rearing and releasing Lime Butterflies for the past 8 months. 

It all started with a Limau Purut (Kaffir Lime) plant a friend gave us and a lime plant my daughter grew from seed.

20090404_0210-320Within 2 weeks of having the plants, the Lime butterflies found the plants and caterpillars started chomping on the new leaves.  Instead of killing the caterpillars, Wai Yen started rearing them and feeding them with older leaves so that the young leaves on the plants have a chance to grow.

  20090820_4465-320
Aug 2009 : Lime Butterfly drying its wings on Ceropegia woodii
Those butterflies she released eventually come back to lay eggs on our lime plants and the cycle continues !  It has reached a point where we always have a few Lime Butterfly caterpillars and pupae in our house and she sometimes has to get Lime leaves from her friends ;-)

All in all she has released more than 30 Lime Butterflies this year !

We are expecting Painted Jezebel (Delias hyparete) and Peacock Royal (Tajuria cippus) caterpillars anytime soon as Dendropthoe pentandra, a parasitic plant has started growing on our Sui Mei and Bottle Brush Tree.

 

20090619_2618-320Jun 2009 : A newly emerged Lime Butterfly drying its wings
on a Sui Mei (Wrightia religiosa plant)

20090416_0113-320Apr 2009 : A newly emerged Lime Butterfly resting on a
Syzgium campanulatum (Eugenia oleina) plant

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

More butterflies from Bunker Trail

Coelites epiminthia (m) - The Straight-banded Cateye. Uncommon, upperside is dull purple, usually found among the undergrowth of the forest.
Coelites epiminthia epiminthia-MYBunker_20090816_4374-480

Parides varuna (f) – The Common Batwing , another uncommon butterfly.  Easily recognized by the red color on the underside of its abdomen.
Parides varuna varuna (f)-MYBunker_20090816_4379-480

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Butterflies from Bunker Trail

Bunker Trail is one of the best place in Johor to see the Nymphalidae butterflies from the Limenitidae subfamily, which include the Tanaecia, Euthalia, Dophla, Bassarona and Lexias.

Below are some photo of butterflies from this subfamily which I photographed recently.  Enjoy !

Bassarona dunya – The Great Marquis, a big and robust butterfly that is supposedly common in northern part of Malaysia peninsula.
Bassarona dunya dunya-MyBunker_20090809_4066-480

Dophla evelina – The Red-spot Duke, another large and robust butterfly which can be seen at Bunker Trail.Dophla evelina compta-MYBunker-20090222_0040-480

Lexias cyanipardus – The Great Archduke (male), is uncommon.
It is larger than the Archduke (Lexia pardalis). The white spot at the wing tip is one of the ways to tell these 2 species apart.
Lexias cyanipardus sandakana (m)-MyBunker_20090809_4076-480

Euthalia sp – I am not quite sure what is this.MyBunker_20090809_4037-480

Euthalia kanda – The Yellow Baron.
Euthalia kanda marana (m)-MYBunker_20090719_3822-480 

Tanaecia palguna – The Long-lined Viscount, one of the many Tanaecia which can be easily mistaken for the Malay Viscount (Tanaecia pelea)
Tanaecia palguna consanguinea-MyBunker_20090809_4106-480

Tanaecia munda - The Peninsula Viscount, another Malay Viscount look alike.
Tanaecia munda waterstradti-MYBunker_20090719_3774-480

Tanaecia pelea – The Malay Viscount (female), ovipositing on Salacia euphlebia (family: Celastraceae)Tanaecia pelea pelea-MyBunker_20090809_4075-480