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.

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 !


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


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.

---

Haliman Guest House



Searching for and photographing butterflies


Sunset from the beach

Sunset from Gunung Machincang


Viewing station at Gunung Machincang


Langkawi Sky Bridge

Back to Gopeng – Part I

Last week, a few of us went back to Gopeng for butterfly watching.  We stayed at Adeline’s Rest House and later move over to her ‘new and improved’ Adeline’s Villa.

The Rest House consists of wooden huts on stilts. They are simple, rustic and comfortable. That is me taking a rest under our hut.

The villa is catered more for those who want to enjoy nature without compromising urban comfort. The villas have attached bathroom, hot water and are air-conditioned !

  

View of the villas at night.

A new large and spacious kitchen that allows Adeline to cook up a storm.

A very spacious and bright dining area that can easily accommodate more than 50 pax.

Panoramic view of the  dining area with villas on the left.

The new common washroom with a cascading waterfall entrace ! 

The food at Adeline’s place is superb as usual.  I’ll let the photos do the talking :

Now is the Durian season and Adeline’s Rest House and Villa are surrounded by Durian trees. Every morning, we went looking for Durian and we had Durians during breakfast, tea and supper everyday !

Continue to Part II =>

---

=> April 2009 Rajah Brooke’s trip - Gopeng
=> July 2009 Rafflesia trip - Gopeng

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.

In the evening, the sunset was mesmerizing ..

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.

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.

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

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

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)
Loxura cassiopeia cassiopeia (The Larger Yamfly)
Symbrenthia lilaea luciana (The Common Jester) 
Kallima limborgii amplirufa (The Indian Leaf butterfly) 
Idea hypermnestra linteata ( The Tree Nymph )

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

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

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

November at Fraser’s Hill

After 2 days at Maxwell Hill, we headed south to Fraser’s Hill, our favorite highland get away. 

Oct-Nov is the 2nd durian season in Malaysia and the road from Maxwell to Fraser’s was lined with stalls selling durians. The durians were dirt cheap, going for RM3-5 each.  We stopped along the road and ate till our heat’s content and ‘ta pao’ some to Frasers.  The durians were soooo good and we paid only RM40 for 10 ! 

View Full Album

On our way up the hill we saw both the male and female Wanderer - Pareronia valeria lutescens ! The female mimics the Yellow Glassy Tiger – Parantica aspasia aspasia.

 

By the time we reached our bungalow, the whole place was surrounded by mist !

The next day we headed to our favorite Raub waterfall.

View Full Album

There I saw my butterfly lifer of the trip – a very rare male Elymnias esaca andersonii. Unlike the larvae of other Elymnias which feed on Palms, this one feeds on the Bamboo Orchid - Arundina graminifolia  !

 

Along the way we saw a Plain Lacewing

and a few male Wanderers feeding on Hibiscus flowers.

The weather was less than ideal for moths but I still had many moth lifers. This hawkmoth - Acherontiini Agrius which we only noticed when we were packing up our moth screen, is the #47 hawkmoths we have recorded at Fraser’s Hill.

other intersting moths we saw include :

The lovely Luna moth – male Actias maenas.

A large Noctuid moth - Phyllodes verhuelli , with a forewing length of about 90mm.

A colourful Arctiid moth - Areas galactina.

This is my 5th and last trip to Fraser’s Hill for 2009 and I look forward to going back there next year.