Another moth in my garden - Filodes fulvidorsalis

Saw another moth in my garden a few days ago. 
This is one of those small moths that I used to ignore.  However since I developed an interest in moths, I now take note of all the moths I find in my garden. 

Filodes fulvidorsalis : Crambidae, Spilomelinae

Mr vs Mrs Gan

See what is lining up at my Mrs nursery :

9 pupae

At least 15 final instar cats ..


Another 15+ 3rd and 4th instar cats ..

and many many newly emerged caterpillars !

I admit defeat ! My only consolation is the cats I rear are more varied and uncommon. ;-)

BTW, if anyone is interested is rearing Lime Butterfly or Painted Jezebel caterpillar, just drop me an email to arrange for collection from my place in the west.

My babies

Eggs of the Leopard butterfly

Short Banded Sailor

Unidentified moth caterpillar

First batch of butterflies for 2010

The Lime Butterfly have returned and left its babies on our Kaffir Lime plant for my Mrs to care for. Those caterpillars have pupated recently : 
and emerged yesterday.

Two were perfect and flew off after they dried their wings but one came out deformed :-(

My Mrs now has a head start on me for 2010.  Mrs 2 : Gan 0.

I am currently rearing 3 caterpillars 
– Lepord caterpillars feeding on Flacourtia rukam,
- possibly Phaedyma columella singa feeding on an unidentifed plant from my condo and
- nettle moth caterpillar feeding on the leaf of Syzygium javanica aka Jambu Air.

Hopefully I will overtake her in a few weeks time ;-D

A Hawk moth in my garden

Yesterday morning while I was watering my plants, I noticed something fast flew past me and landed on a plant. On closer examination, I realized it is a hawk moth ! 

This is the first hawk moth I have seen in my garden (not counting those I reared).

The moth looks familiar, its shape and size are similar to Eupanacra borneensis which I have reared but the markings are different.

Dorsal view:

Ventral view:

After some research, I found out this is E. borneensis after all, but a female. This species exhibits sexual dimorphism !

All the E. borneensis that I have reared thus far are male. I wonder why ?  Maybe I should rear a few more to find out what the male/female ratio is like ?  Anyway,this is how the male looks like, totally different from the female :

So this moth most likely came from Clementi Woods Park which is just next to my apartment. 

I wonder when will it’s close relative, Eupanacra elegantulus, visit my garden ? 

Species #12 at Gan’s garden

Today a Cycad Blue (Chilades pandava pandava) flew into my garden on the 6th floor !

This is species #12

First new species for 2010 !

This morning a Plain Tiger circled around my garden and eventually landed on my Heliotropium indicum bush ! 

This is the first new species for my garden in 2010 and this is also a species that I wanted to have in my garden.  

 
By now 11 species of butterflies have visited by garden on the 6th floor !

When I moved to my new place about 1.5yrs ago, I wanted my garden to attract butterflies. Specifically, I wanted the following butterflies to visit my garden :

- Common Birdwing
- Lime Butterfly
- Common Mormon
- Painted Jezebel
- Plain Tiger
- Common Tiger
- Blue and Dark Glassy Tiger
- Peacock Royal

I planted a lot of butterfly larva and nectar plants and 1.5 years later all the above butterflies except Common Birdwing, Common Mormong and Common Tiger have shown their presence.  (Isn’t it funny all three have name that starts with ‘Common’).
My Aristolochia tagala vine has started growing and I am hoping I will get to see Common Birdwing around my garden in 2010.

Aristolochia tagala and Tylophora sp

Just now while having my dinner in my balcony a tiger moth (Dysphania sp) flew pass me and landed on a flower !  I immediately went to get my camera and took a few shots.  The moth turned out to be Dysphania glaucescen, a geometrid moth, one which I have not photographed before.

 
Moths from this subfamily are day flying and can be seen around flowering plants during the day.

You can see photo of other Tiger moths from Singapore and Malaysia in my Dysphania Flickr album.

What a good start for 2010

---

See also :
- Two new species spotted in my garden.
- Gan’s garden butterfly list.

Looking back at 2009

2009 has been a fun packed and exciting year.

The NSS Nature Forum is finally up, 2nd print of the butterfly guide is on the way and we have started on a few butterfly trail projects that will come into fruition next year.

Of course the part I enjoyed most is my trips to Fraser’s Hill, Gopeng, Maxwell, Thailand and Kota Kinabalu.  Some of the butterfly lifers I observed include :
- Elymnias esaca andersonii – Raub, Nov
- Zeuxidia aurelius aurelius – Ulu Yam, Selangor, Nov
- Danaus affinis malayanus - Kuala Selangor, Nov
- Coelites epiminthia (m) – Bunker Trail, Aug
- Burara etelka – Gopeng, Perak, Jun
- Mooreana trichoneura – Gopeng, Perak, Jun
- Symbrenthia hypatia chersonesia - Fraser’s Hill, April
- Loxura cassiopeia cassiopeia -Fraser’s Hill, April
- Ixias pyrene alticola& - Fraser’s Hill, April
- Lethe vindhya luaba - Fraser’s Hill, March
- Euthalia alpheda langkawica - Fraser’s Hill, March
- Pathysa agetes – Fraser’s Hill, Feb
- Chilasa paradoxa aenigma -f aegialus - Fraser’s Hill, Feb
- Chilasa paradoxa aenigma -f eucyana - Fraser’s Hill, Feb

2010 will be an even more exciting year as there are many interesting projects on the pipeline :

- Develop Singapore Butterfly Trail master plan
- Work on 3 more butterfly trails/gardens
- Launch Orchard Road Butterfly Trail
- Launch NSS caterpillar guide
- Setup NSS butterfly photo checklist

Farewell 2009 and welcome 2010 !