Butterflies Galore! : Tree Flitter

Butterflies Galore!
The Tree Flitter (Hyarotis adrastus praba)

This moderately rare skipper is forest-dependent and is usually encountered in the nature reserves in Singapore. It is a fast flyer and flies rapidly between flowers when feeding on nectar. It tends to remain at low level, flitting amongst the shrubbery but when alarmed it can take off in a flash to the treetops to get out of harm's way.

The Tree Flitter is dark brown above with hyaline spots on the forewings. On the underside of the hindwing, there is an irregular white discal band from mid-costa to mid-dorsum. The hindwing cilia are chequered. The antennae are white-banded just below the elbow of the apiculus. This individual was photographed by ButterflyCircle member Chng CK in the nature reserves.

Butterflies Galore! : Psyche

Butterflies Galore!
The Psyche (Leptosia nina malayana)

In Greek mythology, the Psyche is often depicted as a princess who was loved by Cupid. She became the personification of the soul. The word psyche also means the human soul, spirit or mind, from which the medical specialty psychiatry is derived. In the butterfly world, the Psyche is a small white and delicate butterfly that flies gently and restlessly amongst low shrubbery and open areas.

The Psyche is white above, with a black apical area and a large black oblong sub-apical spot on the forewing. The underside is white and features greenish streaks across both wings. This shot was taken by ButterflyCircle member Loke PF at the Butterfly Hill at Pulau Ubin last weekend.

Butterflies Galore! : Indigo Flash

Butterflies Galore!
The Indigo Flash (Rapala varuna orseis)

The Indigo Flash is a moderately rare species that has a rather wide distribution, turning up in forested areas as well as urban parks and gardens in Singapore. Both sexes of this species feature deep blue or bluish-green uppersides. It is a fast flyer and sometimes flies and hides on the underside of a leaf when disturbed. On hot sunny days, or in the early morning hours, it can be seen sunbathing with its wings opened flat on the top surfaces of foliage.

The male is indigo blue above and unmarked, whilst the female is a steely-blue and similarly unmarked. The underside is dark brown with broad post-discal bands. There is a strong purple wash on the underside of both wings - more prominently in the male than in the female. This female, shot last weekend at Pulau Ubin's Butterfly Hill, appeared to be a newly-eclosed individual and was cooperative for awhile during the early morning hours after a rainstorm.

Butterfly of the Month - July 2014

Butterfly of the Month - July 2014
The Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana javana)

As we move past the halfway mark of the year 2014, we take a look back at the first half of the year with a some trepidation about the safety of air travel these days. Perhaps statistics still show that one is more likely to be killed in a car accident than on a plane, but whenever a whole plane goes down with most or all of its passengers, the news often carries a greater collective impact and shock.

Even as the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 370 still remains unsolved, the shooting down of yet another Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 over Ukrainian airspace shocked the world. This time around, 298 passengers and aircrew perished. As the world was still coming to terms with another Malaysian Airlines plane lost, another plane, an Air Algerie flight carrying about 118 passengers and crew went down in bad weather and crashed over Mali.

As if to round up a week of bad news, Taiwan's TransAsia Airways ATR-72 turboprop aircraft ploughed into a residential area in Penghu killing 48 people. This time around, there were 10 survivors, as the plane was apparently in trouble during bad weather, before the crash. The TransAsia crash was the third worldwide in the space of just eight days, capping a disastrous week for the aviation industry.

We mark a moment of respect and contemplation, as we can never fully comprehend the grief of the surviving relative and families of those who perished in the air crashes. In some cases, entire families were wiped out. As we ponder about the safety of air travel these days, life still goes on. Perhaps the recent three cases were just a coincidence and an aberration in air travel worldwide? No one can say for sure.

Over in the region, as the summer season is in full swing, Singapore is experiencing hotter and drier weather. A short 4-day weekend trip by a small group of ButterflyCircle members across the causeway to Ipoh for a butterfly photography outing also yielded comparatively poor results. Somehow, butterfly activity seems to be rather low in our favourite places with much lower numbers and diversity than our past visits.

This month, we feature a common urban butterfly, the Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana javana). This bright and cheery orange-coloured butterfly is one of four related Pansy species found in Singapore. The Peacock Pansy is widely distributed, but mainly found in urban parks and gardens, and along the sunlit fringes of Singapore's nature reserves.

It is a sunny-weather species, and often found on hot bright days, fluttering amongst the low shrubbery and flowers. It adopts a flap-glide flight characteristic but can be skittish and alert to any movements or approach by a photographer. When feeding on flowers, it can be approached more easily.

The Peacock Pansy can often be observed sunbathing with its wings opened flat to show its bright orange coloured uppersides. When the weather cools down or when there is cloud cover, the butterfly often perches with its wings folded upright, displaying its muted undersides where it can rest amongst the dried foliage with a relatively effective camouflage to avoid predators.

The bright orange upperside of the Peacock Pansy features prominent white-centred ocelli which may have given its English common name "Peacock". Both the fore and hindwings have prominent ocelli with the eyespot on the hindwing larger and resembling an "eye". The underside is much paler and eyespots are smaller and appear more lightly marked.

The life history of the Peacock Pansy has been documented here on the blog, where it has been bred on Ruellia repens a common urban "weed". It is also likely that the caterpillar of the Peacock Pansy is able to feed on other plants as well.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Goh EC, Huang CJ, Koh CH, Khew SK, Loke PF, Bobby Mun, Anthony Wong & Benjamin Yam.

Butterflies Galore! : Narrow Spark

Butterflies Galore!
The Narrow Spark (Sinthusa nasaka amba)

When it was discovered back in 1995, it was a new record for Singapore. The early authors' checklists did not include this species as extant in Singapore, although it can be found in Malaysia. The Narrow Spark is moderately rare, and is quite local in distribution, often spotted in a few select localities in the forested nature reserves in Singapore. They often lurk in heavily shaded forest, and is skittish.

The underside of the butterfly resembles a Common Tit. However the Narrow Spark is much smaller and possesses a pair of filamentous white tipped tails. The upperside of the male is a deep rich ultramarine blue. This species has been successfully bred on Eurya acuminata and the detailed documentation can be found here.

Life History of the Cycad Blue

Life History of the Cycad Blue (Chilades pandava pandava)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Chilades Moore, 1881
Species: pandava Horsfield, 1829
Subspecies: pandava Horsfield, 1829
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 22-26mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plants: Cycas revoluta (Cycadaceae, common name: Sago Palm), Cycas rumphii (Cycadaceae).

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:
On the upperside, the male is blue with thin black borders on both wings and it has a black tornal spot on the hindwing. The female is in paler blue with broad borders on the forewing and it has a series of submarginal spots on the hindwing, of which the spot in space 2 is crowned in orange. On the underside, both sexes are pale greyish brown. Both wings have the usual submarginal, marginal and post-discal series of spots and cell-end bars flanked with white. In the hindwing, there is a black spot in the cell, two black spots in space 7, another one just below vein 1a and orange-crowned tornal spots in spaces 1b and 2. There is a white-tipped filamentous tail at vein 2 in the hindwing.

Field Observations:

Cycad Blue is common in Singapore. The adults are usually observed flying in the vicinity of its host plant, the ornamental Sago Palm which can be found in many gardens in commercial, recreational and private residential areas. They are viewed as a pest by gardeners as their presence usually leaves the prized ornamental plants without new growth. The adults visits flowers for nectar and have the habit of sunbathing with open wings in sunny condition.

Early Stages:

Globally,  a fair number of Cycas spp. have been recorded as larval hosts for the Cycad Blue in many countries and regions. In Singapore, two Cycas spp., namely, C. revoluta and C. rumphii have  thus far been identified as local host plants. The caterpillars of the Cycad Blue feed on the immature shoots and young (and still fleshy) leaves of the host plant.

Local host plant: Cycas revoluta.

Young shoots of Cycas revoluta.

A mating pair of the Cycad Blue.

The eggs are laid on emerging young shoots of the host plant when they are still covered in brownish hair or when the green fleshy leaves are still at the stage of being unfurled. Repeated oviposition visits by several females could result in a single shoot being adorned with many eggs.

A Cycad Blue laying an egg on a young shoot of Cycas revoluta.

A Cycad Blue laying eggs on young shoots of Cycas revoluta.

Eggs laid on young shoots, with black arrows indicating where they are present.

Each egg is about 0.45-0.5mm in diameter, pale greenish and discoid-shaped with a depressed micropylar at the center of the upper surface. The egg surface is reticulated with a fine pattern of ridges and indentations.

Two views of an egg of the Cycad Blue.

It takes about 2 days for the egg to hatch. The newly hatched does not consume the rest of the egg shell after its emergence. It has a pale yellowish body with a length of about 0.9-1mm. The body also features long setae dorso-laterally and along the body fringe. The head capsule is black.

The empty egg shell after the emergence of the caterpillar.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 1mm.

The young caterpillar feeds by nibblying away a layer of the leaf lamina. After about 1.5-2 days of growth in the first instar, and reaching a length of about 1.8-1.9mm, the caterpillar moults to the next instar.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, length: 1.5mm.

Two views of a late 1st instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 1.9mm.

In the 2nd instar, besides the moderately long setae which occur dorso-laterally and along body fringe, there are short and fine setae (emanating from dark tubercles) covering the body surface.  The caterpillar could appear in two colour forms: yellow and red. In the yellow form, the caterpillar is yellowish with a strong green undertone, and whitish, narrow, intermittent bands occur dorso-laterally and laterally. In the red form, the caterpillar is reddish brown instead. The 2nd instar caterpillar reaches a length of about 3.2-3.5mm, and after about 1 day in this stage, it moults again.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, yellow form, early in this stage, length: 1.9mm.

Both colour forms of the 2nd instar caterpillar observed in the field, being attended by ants.

Two views of a late 2nd instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 3.5mm.

Compared to the 2nd instar caterpillar, the 3rd instar caterpillar bears a denser coat of proportionately shorter setae on its body. The caterpillar could appear in a yellow or red form, and an intermediate form (essentially yellow form with reddish brown bands). The dorsal nectary organ and the pair of tentacular organs, on the 7th and 8th abdominal segments, are now readily observed. The 3rd instar takes about 1 day to complete with the body length reaching about 7-7.5mm.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, yellow form, length: 5mm.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, yellow form, length: 7mm.

Two views of a late 3rd instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, mixed form, length: 7mm.

A 4th instar caterpillar (in upper half of picture) and a 3rd instar caterpillar of the Cycad Blue found a new (and damaged) leaf of the Sago Palm.

The 4th instar caterpillar has a more distinctive appearance, featuring a dense coat of short whitish setae all over the body surface. Again the same three colour forms observed in the earlier instar are present. The caterpillar can either feed by grazing the leaf surface or devouring the lamina along the leaf edge.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, red form, length: 10mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, yellow form, length: 12mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, yellow form with strong green tone, length: 12.5mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, mixed form, length: 12.9mm.

4th instar caterpillars found in the field, attended by ants.

After about 2 days of feeding and reaching a length of about 12-13mm, the caterpillar stops food intake and seeks out a pupation site. During this time, its body gradually shortened. Typically the caterpillar chooses a spot in gaps or cavities present between dried leaves in leaf litter for its pupation site. The pre-pupatory caterpillar prepares for pupation by spinning a silk girdle and a silk pad to which it attaches itself via anal claspers.

Two views of a pre-pupa, green form.

Two views of a pre-pupa, red form.

After about 1 day as a pre-pupa, pupation takes place. Depending on the colour form of the final instar caterpiller, the pupa can be yellowish green almost entirely, or yellowish to dark reddish brown with numerous black speckles. The pupa has a typical lycaenid shape, and is secured with a silk girdle and cremastral attachment. Pupal length: 9.5-10.5mm.

Two views of a pupa of the Cycad Blue.

Two views of a pupa of the Cycad Blue.

Two views of a pupa of the Cycad Blue.

Four to five days later, the pupa turns black, first in the wing pad and thorax, then progressively in the abdomen. The extent of the bluish patch in the wing pads gives an early indication of the gender of the soon-to-emerge adult. The next day, the pupal stage comes to an end with the emergence of the adult butterfly.

Two views of a mature pupa of a Cycad Blue.

A newly eclosed Cycad Blue resting on its pupal case.

References:

• [C&P4] The Butterflies of The Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malayan Nature Society, 1992.
• Butterflies of Thailand, Pisuth Ek-Amnuay, 2nd Edition, 2012.
• A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore, Khew S.K., Ink On Paper Communications, 2010.

Text by Horace Tan, Photos by James Chia, Ellen Tan, Bobby Mun, Anthony Wong, Mark Wong, Federick Ho, Sunny Chir and Horace Tan