Up Close And Personal With Butterflies, Caterpillars And Pupae

Butterfly walk at MacRitchie Reservoir, 12 Jul 2009

The early morning of 12th July 2009 began with menacing darks clouds invading the north-western part of Singapore. Over breakfast at a coffee shop, Gan and I were wondering whether any members would be joining us at MacRitchie Reservoir. En route bus 157, we noticed the gradual dissipation of the rain clouds the nearer we got to our destination. At the scheduled meeting point, the weather began warming up. 
 
With about 10 participants in tow, we started walking towards a hillock in the direction of Upper Thomson Road. Midway up was an old Saraca tree (Saraca thaipingensis) brimming with large seed pods. To the left was a forest  trail recommended to us in a previous walk by Richard Ong, a butterfly enthusiast and BIG member. We could spot a few Common Palmfly and Chocolate Pansy butterflies amongst the vegetation.

Venturing further in we chanced upon a female Malayan Eggfly  flying towards us. Looking more like a male Striped Blue Crow, only an expert will be able to discern its true identity. It was in the same vicinity that we found 2 pupae of the Plain Nawab on a Petai sapling (Parkia speciosa) and a second instar caterpillar of the Acacia Blue on a young Albizia (Albizia falcataria) tree.

 
The trail opened up in front of us to reveal the reservoir. All along the waterline was what looked like a never-ending boardwalk. Wind speed started picking up as we neared it.

As a rule, butterflies tend not to fly when wind conditions are too   strong as that may lead to irreparable damage to their wings. The intermittent strong breezes we were now experiencing created 3 once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, that of viewing 3 species of butterflies up close. The first is an incessant speed demon, the Blue Jay. Normally seen zipping up and down a forest trail in a light bluish haze, this specimen, most likely a freshly eclosed individual was spotted settled on a leaf of the Hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta). Then there was a Common Hedge Blue, a species that normally rest for short periods usually on leaves very close to the ground. And finally, an ‘exhibitionist’ Branded Imperial presenting its backside everytime someone wants to take a picture of it. 

Although very well camouflaged, Gan managed on our return journey, to spot one caterpillar each of the Commander and Colonel on plants growing on the water’s edge.
Overall, the participants enjoyed themselves with really unbelievable close-ups of butterflies, pupae and caterpillars.

More photos from the walk ..

List of butterflies seen during the walk :

	Name	Common Name
1	Graphium evemon eventus	Blue Jay
2	Delias hyparete metarete	Painted Jezebel
3	Catopsilia pomona  pomona	Lemon Emigrant
4	Eurema hecabe contubernalis	Common Grass Yellow
5	Eurema sari sodalis	Chocolate Grass Yellow
6	Gandaca harina distanti	Tree Yellow
7	Elymnias hypermnestra agina	Common Palmfly
8	Mycalesis sp.	Bush Brown species
9	Ypthima baldus newboldi	Common Five Ring
10	Faunis canens arcesilas	Common Faun
11	Junonia hedonia ida	Chocolate Pansy
12	Hypolimnas anomala anomala	Malayan Eggfly
13	Neptis leucoporos cresina	Grey Sailor
14	Lasippa tiga siaka	Burmese Lascar
15	Pandita sinope sinope	Colonel
16	Moduza procris milonia	Commander
17	Polyura hebe plautus	Plain Nawab
18	Acytolepis puspa lambi	Common Hedge Blue
19	Jamides celeno aelianus	Common Caerulean
20	Surendra vivarna amisena	Acacia Blue
21	Eooxylides tharis distanti	Branded Imperial
22	Iambrix salsala salsala	Chestnut Bob
23	Potanthus omaha omaha	Lesser Dart