Monday, March 10, 2014

Langakwi Butterfly Trip

This is my first overseas butterfly trip for 2014 and my 3rd visit to Lanngkawi Island. Langkawi island is part of the state of Kedah and sits at the northernmost point of Peninsula Malaysia and very closed to Thailand. As such many of the flora and fauna on Langkawi Island are not found on the Malaysian mainland and are closer to those from Thailand.
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This is a short 4D3N trip with my butterfly friends and the objective is to record and photograph the butterflies found on the island.  My wish list for this trip is the elusive Yoma sabina vasuki which in Malaysia is only found on the Langkawi Island and Perak.
The weather on  the island unfortunately has been unexpectedly hot and arid due the El Nino effect and as a result we did not see as many butterflies as we had hoped and those we came here for.  However, we still had a very productive trip. We recorded 110+ butterfly species, observed a mini migration and population explosion (1000+ individuals) of the Euploea butterflies and all of us leave the island with lifers on our check list. We will be back and I will continue to look for the elusive Yoma sabina !

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CW from Top left - Papilio demolion ,Pathysa ramaceus, Parantica aglea, Lebadea martha, Cirrochroa surya , Zemeros flegyas, Euploea sylvester, Bindahara phocides, Prothoe franck.

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CW from Top left - Euploea core, Bassarona teuta rayana, Euploea eyndhovii, Melanitis phedima, Curetis bullis, Tapena thwaitesi, Notocrypta curvifascia, Arhopala democritus and Appias albina
You can see more butterflies photos from this trip on my Flickr album and Lemon’s Flickr album.


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Haliman Guest House

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Searching for and photographing butterflies

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Sunset from the beach

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Sunset from Gunung Machincang

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Viewing station at Gunung Machincang

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Langkawi Sky Bridge