Friday, April 30, 2010

Butterfly stamps

SingPost launched the Butterflies stamp series on Apr 21 2010. This series of stamps consists of four exquisite local butterfly – The Common Birdwing, The Blue Glassy Tiger, The Common Posy and The Tailed Jay. ButterflyStamps-M

The stamp collection is the result of collaboration between SingPost and and Nature Society (Singapore) Butterfly Interest Group.  Simon and I started working with SingPost on this series in late 2008 and after more than a year, the butterfly stamp series is finally available to the public.  Apart from the stamps, SingPost also released Pre-cancelled First Day Cover, Presentation Pack and Self-Adhesive Stamp Booklet.  In addition, SingPost also released a special promotional bundle which consists of Butterflies First-Day Cover,  presentation Pack and NSS’s Butterfly Field Guide. 

NSSButterflyGuide[1]

Priced at S$15.00, it is on sale at four selected Post Offices namely Singapore Post Centre, Tanglin, Toa Payoh Central and Changi Airport.

Yesterday, Clement from SingPost personally delivered complimentary copy of the stamps to us. We had a pleasant surprise when he handed us a framed copy of the First Day Cover with Pre-cancelled stamps.

  ButterflyStamps-20100430_DSC00609-800

The presentation was beautiful ! wub[1].  Thank you SingPost !

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Comparing Chestnut and Chocolate Tiger

The Chestnut Tiger and Chocolate Tiger are common at Fraser’s Hill. The upperside of these 2 species are quite distinct and cannot be mistake for one another.

Parantica sita-melaneus-upper-800

Their underside however, looks very similar in passing and can be mistaken in the field.  The picture below highlights the key differences of the underside of these 2 species.

Parantica sita-melaneus-880

Saturday, April 24, 2010

April Fraser’s Hill trip

A few of us went to Fraser’s Hill in April. The weather at Fraser’s Hill was still cold and misty in the morning.MYFH_20100414_D6391-360

In the evening, the sunset was mesmerizing ..

MYFH_20100414_D6385

We have a fantastic view of the sunset right from the living room.  Below, Amy is taking photo of the sunset just before dinner was served.

Amy-MYFH_20100414_D6391-640

We saw lots of butterflies and everyone had a great time taking photo of species which are not commonly seen at lower elevation.

Amy and Laurence shooting the Red Spot Jezebel (Delias descombesi eranthos).  See Laurence’s photo of this beauty here.

Amy-Laurence-MYFH_20100417_D7093-640

We chanced upon another rare species, the Common Jester (Symbrenthia lilaea luciana) near our bungalow.MYFH_20100415_DS0513-360

At one of our favorite haunts, we had a very cooperative Orange Albatross (Appias nero figulina) posing for photograph.MYFH_20100416_DS0563-640 

This trip I saw 4 lifers :
- Charaxes durnfordi dumfordi – This is a 5-STAR !
- Euthalia malaccana malaccana
- Symbrenthia lilaea luciana
- Scobura woolletti

I also saw the very rare  Graphium empedovava !

Other species I saw include :

Yasoda pita dohertyi (Malayan Branded Yamfly)Yasoda pita dohertyi-MYFH_20100415_D6472-640
Loxura cassiopeia cassiopeia (The Larger Yamfly)Loxura cassiopeia cassiopeia-MYFHRaub_20100416_D6810-360
Symbrenthia lilaea luciana (The Common Jester)Symbrenthia lilaea luciana-MYFH_20100415_D6512-640 
Kallima limborgii amplirufa (The Indian Leaf butterfly)  Kallima limborgii amplirufa-MYFHRaub_20100416_D6923-640
Idea hypermnestra linteata ( The Tree Nymph )Idea hypermnestra linteata-MYFHRaub_20100416_D6885-320

Scobura woolletti (Brown Forest Bob)- A small skipper that resembles the Chestnut Bob Scobura woolletti-MYFHRaub_20100416_D6797-640
Pareronia valeria lutescens (The Wanderer)Pareronia valeria lutescens-MYFHRaub_20100416_D6817-640
Papilio helenus helenus (The Red Helen) - a very common Papilio at this part of Malaysia.Papilio helenus helenus-MYFHRaub_20100416_D6867-640

Papilio nephelus sunatus (The Black and White Helen) – They are very common as well. I saw at least 8 of them in 2 hours.
Papilio nephelus sunatus-MYFHRaub_20100416_D6822-640

You can see more photo of butterflies from Fraser’s Hill here.