Hello where have you been ?

I moved into a new place in July and have been busy in the last one and a half months setting up my new 'garden'. My weekends have been spent shopping for plants and garden accessories, re potting plants and replacing the red clay soil in the planters. It is hard work but rewarding

Most people know me as the butterfly man but I am as much into plants as butterflies. In fact my interest in plants started before I was into butterflies and I have been doing 'gardening' for the last 40 yrs !

These are some of the plants which I have :

Air Plant (Tillandsia) requires very little maintenance and is perfect for apartment gardening. I have more than 100 airplants and these are just some of my favorite :
1. T araujei

2. T. capitata


Episcias are plants belonging to the Gesneraid family and they are grown for their colourful and interesting foliage.
1. Episcia 'Silver Skies', a lovely miniature variety

2. Episcia 'Pink Acajou'

and these are some of my Episcia collection


African violets (Saintpaulia sp) also belong to the Gesneriad family and require cooler temperature to do well. In Singapore, they do best in air-conditioned environment, e.g. office environment. Given the right condition, they requires very little care and flower non-stop. These are some AV I grow in my office.




That's it for now.

BTW, a Lime butterfly has found my Kaffir Lime (Limau Purut) plant and has laid a few eggs on it. I will post some pix of the egg and cat next time.

Butterflies of Fraser's Hill - Part I

I am addicted to Fraser's Hill ! The variety of moths and butteflies there are just amazing. My recent trips there yield quite a number of lifers (Yasoda pita, Amblypodia narada, Cyrestis cocles earli f. earli and formosa, Derca verhuelli ...) and many close up shots of rare buttreflies - Pallid Faun, Wizard, Banded Peacock, Rajah Brooke's birdwing .. !

I will start by showing you some 'die-die must see' butterflies from Fraser' Hill :

1. Melanocyma faunula (Pallid Faun) - This is the one butterfly you must see at Fraser's Hill. It can be found at Jeriau waterfall but rest high up on at canope. Nick Baker found a freshly emerged specimen drying its wing at eye-level near to our bungalow !

2. Kaniska canace (Blue Admiral) - The next butterfly to look out for at Fraser's Hill is the Blue Admiral. It is a fast flier and like to perch at the tip of a leaf. I have seen this butterfly on 5 separate occasions, trice along Telecom loop, once along the road to Jeriau waterfall and another time along Sri Pahang road.

3. Heliophorus epicles (Purple Sapphire) - This is another rare highland gem. We shot this one near the children playground !

4. Delias descombesi (Red Spot Jezebel) - There are many beautiful Pieridae at Fraser's hill and the Red Spot jezebel is the most common Pieridae there. It can be easily recognize by the bright yellow hindwings and red streak along the costal margin.

5. Prioneris thestylis (Spotted Sawtooth) - This is a large and robust butterfly. The underside hindwing is entirely yellow with black veins.

6. Yasoda pita (Branded Yamfly) - This is the highland version of The Yamfly (Loxura atymnus). It is larger and has more rounded wings and is not uncommon at the hill top.

Busy busy ..

March, April and May are peak seasons for butterflies and I have been out butterflying and mothing non-stop in Malaysia for the past three months. During the last 3 months, I have seen more lifers and rare species than my other outings.

Now you know why I have not been blogging for the last 2 months ;-) However, I am going to make up for it by sharing some of the prettiest and rarest butterflies and moths from Singapore and Malaysia !

I will start with a local species, Euthalia adonia (Green Baron), my nickname on the web. I have been looking high and low for this caterpillar for some time now with no success. Last month, when I came back from a butterfly trip from Malaysia, my wife told me she has an interesting caterpillar for me. Low and behold it is the caterpillar of the Green Baron butterfly !
Wai Yen was rearing the Painted Jezebel caterpillars and she has been collecting the leaves of Dendropthoe and Macrosolen from plants around our condominium for the caterpillars. While washing the leaves, she found this spiny caterpillar feeding on the leaf of Macrosolen.

The caterpillar of the Green Baron, like those from the tribe Adoliaditi (The Baron, Horsfield's Baron, Archduke ..) has a single subdorsal row of very long, horizontal projecting, delicately branched spines. 9 days after the caterpillar pupated, a beautiful female emerged !

Peak season for butterflies is also the best time for wasps and other butterfly predators. The Neostauropus alternus, Enpinanga borneensis and the Blue Nawab caterpillars I was breeding were all parasitized :-(

Now back to species from Malaysia. I shall start a few intersting hawk moths which most of us have never seen.

1. Amplypterus panopus : This hawk moth has long and slender forewings and its caterpillar feeds on the leaf of Durian ! Angie Ng found a caterpillar of this hawk moth in Ubin.

2. Amplypterus mansoni : A. mansoni is much rarer than A. panopus and can be mistaken as A. panopus. 3. Ambulyx tattina
4. Marumba cristata
That's it for now. In my next post, I will show some rare butterfly from the Fraser's Hill.

Euthalia adonia pinwilli (Green Baron)

Name : Euthalia adonia pinwilli
Common Name : Green Baron
Family : Nymphalidae, Nymphalinae
Larva host plant : Macrosolen cochinchinensis ( Loranthaceae )

Female

---

Life History Record

---

Date : 17 April 2008 by Wong Wai Yen
Location : West Cove Condominium, Singapore.

Host Plant : Macrosolen cochinchinensis

Caterpillar :

Adult : female

Moth - Drepana fulvata Snellen, 1876, Tijdschr

Name : Drepana fulvata Snellen, 1876, Tijdschr.

Family : Drepanidae

Subfamily : Drepaninae

Reference : The Moth of Borneo, Vol 8, Plate 3

Record :

Date : Jan 12 2008

Location : Neo Tiew area

Host Plant : Nephelium lappaceum - Rambutan

Pupation period : 6 days (7 Dec 2008 - 13 dec 2008)

Caterpillar :

Pupa :

Ant like moth caterpillar

When I was at Pulau Ubin last month, I chanced upon a batch of ant-like caterpillars feeding on Melastoma malabathricum.

When disturbed, it will lift up its head and waves its legs. I found out later from Tzi Ming that this is the caterpillar of the Neostauropus alternus, a drab brown moth ;-(

A few of my hawk moths Caterpillar has pupated!They are (from the top) :
-Psilogramma menephron
-Enpinanga borneensis
-Eupanacra elegantulus or E. mydon.

You can see photo of P. menephron and E. borneensis in my earlier post.

This is how the E. elegantulus(mydon?) caterpillar looks like

The Nawab

Every time I see a Plain Nawab (Polyura hebe) caterpillar, I just have to take photo of it, even though I already have hundreds of similar shots. I am not sure if it is because I am fascinated by the Dragon-like armoured head, the way it parks itself on the 'landing pad' it meticulously weaved together or the light green crescent patterns along its abdomen. Probably all of the above ;-) So last week when I visited Mt Faber Park and saw a few early instar Plain Nawab caterpillars, instinctively I stop and took a few shots of them.

The early instar of the Plain Nawab caterpillar unlike that of the later instar, has black color head (instead of green) and green body without any patterns.

As I was about to move on, I noticed one of the caterpillars has a slight reddish horns.
Interesting ! Again without thinking I took a few more shots and continued my journey up the steps along the Marang Trail.

Last night, when I was sorting through my photos, deciding which to delete and which to keep, I noticed there is something different about the 'red-head' Plain Nawab caterpillar from Mt Faber.

It is NOT a Plain Nawab caterpillar! It is the caterpillar of the Blue Nawab (Polyura schreiber).

Yahoo!

So what is the big deal you ask? First, the Blue Nawab caterpillar is uncommon. More important is the fact that this one is found feeding on Saga (Adenanthera pavonina) instead of its normal food plant - Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum). This validates BIG's 2001 finding that Adenanthera pavonina is an alternative host plant for Blue Nawab.

Three cheers for BIG !!