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Wood Shrimp

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 ..

Neptis hylas papaja (Common Sailor)

Name : Netis hylas papaja
Common Name : Common Sailor
Family : Nymphalidae, Nymphalinae

Larva host plant :
Name : Urena lobata (Pink Mallow)
Family : Malvacea (Hibiscus family)
Note : This is also the larva host plant for Rapala iarbus (Common Red Flash)

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Life History Record

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Date : 22 Feb 2009
Location : Bunker Trail, Johor, Malaysia

Larva host plant : Urena lobata

Larva :

Pupa :

Adult :

Rapala iarbus iarbus (Common Red Flash)

Name : Rapala iarbus iarbus
Common Name : Common Red Flash

Larva Host Plant
Name : Urena lobata
Common Name : Pink Mallow
Family : Malvacea (Hibiscus family)

Note : This is also the larva host plant for Neptis hylas papaja (Common Sailor)

Life History Record

Date : 22 Feb 2009
Location : Johor, along highway 3 after Kota Tinggi

Host plant : Urena lobata

Larva :

Pupa :

Adult :

Fraser's here I come ... Part I

The butterfly season starts around March but we are all itching for more butterflies so we took a chance and made a trip to Fraser’s Hill in end Feb. FH has so much to offer - even if we don't get any butterfly or moth, we can still enjoy the cool fresh air, lush greenery and great food.

As it turned out, FH did not disappoint us ! Not only did we have great food and lots of fun, we managed to see and photograph many rare moths and butterflies.

I get my first lifer even before we made it to the summit ! This is what greeted us on our way up :

OK, so we have Malayan Zebra, Pendlebury's Zebra, Blue Jay, Five Bar Swordtail. No big deal ! Look again, what is that butterfly that looks like a faded Five Bar Swordtail ? It is a Four Bar Swordtail (4BS)- Pathysa agetes !

I have been looking for 4BS ever since Laurence Leong showed me a photo of 4BS photos taken at FS. I didn't expect to see any exotic butterfly this trip but there it was sitting there waiting for me ! That sighting alone made the trip worth while, but that is not all...

The next morning I took stroll around our bungalow and low and behold I saw not one but 3 Purple Sapphire (Heliophorus epicles) busking on a shrub.

This must be one of the most beautiful Lycaenid in Malaysia. On closer examination, I realised that bush which they are busking on is Polygonum chinesis, the host plant of Purple Sapphire !


On the 2nd day we spotted a flowering tree with lots of Pieridae. Using a 400mm lens I managed to take a few shots of three of the more common Jezebels at FH.

Malayan Jezebel - Delias ninus Red-spot Jezebel - Delias descombesiYellow Jezebel - Delias baracasa
That's it for now...

January caterpillars

These are some of the caterpillars I have reared recently :

1. Eupanacra elegantulus - I received an sms sometime in Jan from a member from a local gardening forum asking if I want a caterpillar that is feeding on her Philodendron.

Caterpillar

Adult moth

2. Cethosia cyane euanthes (Leopard Lacewing) - I received a note from a Zhonghua Primary School parent volunteer asking if I would like to have some Leopard Lacewing cats. It seems the passiflora vine at the school is 'attacked' by the Leopard Lacewing cats. Leopard Lacewing is a new migrant from Malaysia/Thailand and is now the most common Lacewing in Singapore. The other two lacewings, namely the Malay and Plain Lacewing are cofined to more forested area.

Caterpillar

Adult butterfly

Dec Fraser's Hill trip - Part 2

One of the reasons we go to Fraser's Hill is for the moths. Moths are so abundant there that even though Decemeber is not a good time for mothing, the condition was not ideal and the place we stayed did not have a clear view of the forest, we still get very decent catch.

On the first night, the air was dry and windy and we did not get many moths.

As you can see in the photo above, there were very few moths on the screen. However, we did get a few big ones - the beautiful Owl Moth -Brahmaea hearseyi which Vilma was admiring and stealth bomber like Acosmeryx shervillii which Celine was trying to photograph.

While we were looking at the moths, Gloria and Tim came over and showed us photo of a moth they shot at Sri Peninjau. From the photo, it looks like an Erebus but not something I have seen before.
Vilma and I went over to Sri Peninjau and we found this moth perching high up on the wall along the stairs. I had to stand on the handrail to get a good shot of the moth.

and this is the mystery moth !

Later I found out this is Erebus albicinctus Kollar, occurring in India, Nepal, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Sumatra but not Malaysia, according to the Kononenko & Pinratana book on Noctuids of Thailand. As such this would be a new record for Malaysia ! This explains why I can't find this moth in my Malaysian and Borneo moth references.
Later in the night, we got another VIP, an Eupterote which we have seen in our prvious trips but which I had not been able to ID.

As it turns out, this is an undescribed Eupterote species which is not uncommon at Fraser's Hill.

The 2nd and 3rd night were better as it rained in the evening and the wind was not as strong.

We had a female Antheraea lampei (f)
A few sphingidaes. Clockwise from top right : Theretra nessus, Amplypterus panopus, Cechenena subangustata and Acherontia lachesis.

and many colourful and interesting moths. Clockwise from top right : Pachynoa purpuralis, Teldenia specca, Mixochlora vittata and Callidrepana gelidata .

All in all we have 1 new Erebus record for Malaysia, 1 undescribed Eupterote species, 1 saturnid, 14 sphingids !