Jewels from Fraser’s Hill, May 2011

This is my 2nd trip to Fraser’s Hill this year and one of my all time best ! The best because we had the pleasure to feast on the authentic and BEST ‘Mao Shan Wang’ (Gua Musang) durian in Malaysia and I saw many spectacular and rare butterflies out of which 2 are lifer* for me :

• Graphium empedovana
• Chilasa paradoxa aenigma -f. eucyana
• Lamproptera, most likely L. meges.
• Ixias pyrene alticola
• Amathuxidia amythaon dilucida
• Sumalia daraxa theoda
• Hestina nama nama*
• Prothoe franck uniformis*

Here are some butterfly photos from the trip :

Female Yellow Orange Tip (Ixias pyrene alticola) – a subspecies found on highland, the female can be easily mistaken for other pierinae.

The Banded Puffin (Appias pandione lagela)– a common pierinae at Fraser’s hill.
The Yellow Glassy Tiger- a common butterfly at Fraser’s Hill.

The Striped Blue Crows, sipping seepage from on rock surface.

The Blue Begum and Koh-I-Noor – both are rare and were sighted at the same location ! Awesome !

Staff Sergeant (Athyma selenophora selenophora)

The Green Commodore (Sumalia daraxa theoda) - A highland species which like to settle high above ground, can be mistaken for a small G. sarpedon. This is the first time I managed to photograph this species.

The Common Nawab - common but always a joy to watch and photograph.

The Circe – flies and looks like a Chestnut Tiger ! It will trick all but the true expert. RARE ! Jackpot !!

The Larger Yamfly (Loxura cassiopeia cassiopeia)
The White Banded Awl – one of the more colourful Awls.

and last but not least the authentic Mao Shan Wang durian.

Fraser’s Hill Part 2

Continue from part 1

My other butterfly lifers for this trip are two forms of Great Blue Mime - Chilasa paradoxa aenigma. This butterfly has at least 7 forms which mimic the distasteful Euploea butterflies.

1. Chilasa paradoxa aenigma -f eucyana


The rare male form eucyana has the forewing upperside shimmering blue and unmarked. It mimics the male Euploea mulciber (Striped Blue Crow).

2. Chilasa paradoxa aenigma -f aegialus


Seeing double ? :-)
Left : Great Blue Mime, Right : Magpie Crow

The form aegialus mimics Euploea radamanthus (Magpie Crow).
I must say this is one of the best mimic I have seen and would fool most people except those who have an eye for details. The giveaway is the white submarginal crescents which is only apparent on closer examination. I only noticed the crescents when I examined the photo for sharpness on my camera !

Moths

As expected we did not get many moths during this time of the year but what we did not get in quantity was made up for with quality. We saw one of the prettiest and rarest Saturniid in Malaysia – Actias selene. In my 10+ trips to Fraser’s, this is only the 2nd time I see A. selene.

Other noteworthy species include the bright yellow Leopa sikkima

and the striking Owl Moth - Brahmaea hearseyi, with a wingspan of 14cm !

We also saw many other colorful and interesting moths …

Birds

Fraser’s Hill is a bird paradise. Pretty birds are everywhere and one can do arm chair birding right from the bungalow balcony. Even a lep person like me can rattle off a list of bird names after a few trips to Fraser’s Hill.

These are shots taken from our bungalow balcony :

Silver-eared Mesia


Pacific Swallow preening in the rain


Sultan Tit on a tree in front of our bungalow

Black-throated Sunbird - The one and only sunbird at Fraser’s Hill.

My favorite bird ! The Verditer Flycatcher. Such a beautiful bird and a regular visitor to our bungalow. Laurence managed to take a full frame shot using his 100mm macro lens during one of our trips last year.

That’s it. What a start for the year !

I just came back from my 2nd butterfly trip to Malaysia - Gopeng, Perak. It is another fabulous trip. We saw 100+ species of butterflies in 2.5 days and we dined with Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing ..