Butterfly Effect

Second Encounters

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:12:09 +0800

Note on photo: Scientific name - Athyma nefte subrata. Males have white bands instead. Photo taken of it here. Males were around but not cooperative today.. .hanging around on high branches chasing each other.

I was out for only a few hours before I found myself running like a overloaded freight train down some narrow paths to get myself some shelter from the rain.

Activity was... GOOD! Many of the trees were flowering right at the top of the hill and there were a lot of Painted Jezebels flitting around out of reach. Banded swallowtails and Autumn leaf butterflies were a few and the trails were re-populated by the great eggflies (Hypolimnas bolina bolina and Hypolimmas bolina jacintha) further down the hill.

I surprised a dating couple and also found a couple of straight(?) Judys (Abisara species) dog-fighting way out of their usual dog-fighting hours.

Cinnamomum iners and bug

Note on photo above: Went back to the cinnamomum iners to find more Katies... but it was uneaten and populated by a colourful bug.

I saw the Xylocopa caerulea for the second time this year (only!) and still failed to get a record shot (it landed for 1 second on a small stem of a plant and then hovered away down the hill). I'd only ever seen it on this hill.

It has a furry unmistakably blue thorax. Read John's write up on it here.

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Poor Katie...

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:42:12 +0800

Parasited caterpillar

Only just yesterday, this lil caterpillar was moving like a freight train through my little tank... one day later... it was covered in little furry eggs and didn't seem to be moving.

Parasited katie-pillar

Note on photo above: Butt view

She wasn't eating yesterday so I went down into the forest in my corporatey too-tight-for-hills-skirt after work thinking that maybe she needed young saplings of the host plant.

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Note on photo above: The lifeless or paralysed head... hanging out sadly... instead of covered with its fleshy mantle.

I hesitated initially about going into the forest in my slippers... but... the thought of her starving was unbearable.

Poor parasited katie-pillar

Note on photo above: When Katie was alive... and parasited... (maybe it's those weird tear shaped white markings on its sides)...:(

After running around in the forest till almost dark, I found all the saplings I needed. And was treated to a rare display (to me, anyway) of huge Saturns chasing each other in the darkness above my head. I'd never seen them like that before in the daytime. All out and about in the open.

It was an amazing sight...HOWEVER... I don't think I'd do that again anytime soon.

The forest at night is a really spooky place. Its a complete opposite of the beauty it breathes in the daylight.

Lebadea martha parkeri (the knight)

Sadly, Katie was dead and all my effort was wasted.

I'd been so horribly busy lately. What with all the running around in the forests at night and attending way too many weddings and Christmas parties (before Christmas even!).

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But baking gingerbread for people I love is really fun! Only downside is that I don't want to touch a gingerbread man after having been wafted with that overly sweet smell of brown sugar, golden syrup and ginger powder from preparation to decoration.

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In my opinion, baking and decorating them is way more fun than eating them! (I tried bringing them on the field while shooting butterflies in case I got hungry... but I kept getting attacked by ardent ants!)

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All Quiet

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:59:22 +0800

Praying 1

Praying 2

Note on photos of praying mantis: A mantis does not pray. It's preys. And thus shows us all what the business of its prayer.

I never noticed the small illusory pupil of the mantis' compound eye until I saw it move.

Lebadea Martha Parkeri (The Knight)

Note on photo above: Never has The Knight obliged so willingly for a shot this close.

All was quiet on the front today even though it was an atypically sunny December day. The knights were surprisingly common and subdued and even allowed for a rare ventral shot.

Tanaecia iaspis puseda (Horsfield baron)

The Horsfield's Baron was not so cooperative but it hung around to rhythmically flip up its bluish brown wings for a chance shot to be taken.

Iambrix salsala salsala (Chestnut bob)

The Chestnut bob perched in feeding ecstacy on some bird poop that it didn't mind me hovering over it and flashing it repeatedly (skippers are usually very sensitive to flash).

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Note on photo above: A very sugary sculpture at the Ritz.

The rest of the butterflies didn't cooperate that day. Although the patch at the entry had its usual pickings of Common Mormons and Common Caeruleans.

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Gombak and a friend's backyard

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:24:51 +0800

Appias lyncida vasava (Chocolate albatross)

Note on photo above: Choc Albatross was sitting around a pile of sand in an Orang Asli community.

In a perpetual of cycle of bad timings, the second trip back to KL for butterflies this year happened to be the beginning of the Malaysian monsoon (the first had been in March towards the end of the monsoon). So it was not surprising that I found myself standing in the rain all over again.

Polyura jalysus jalysus

Note on photo: And this nawaby looking butterfly was its companion.

As we left Sunway hotel for Gombak, the rain continued to pelt us. Surprisingly, when we got to Gombak, the sun came out and shone out all the butterflies for a short sliver of a few hours.

Maybe stimula swinhoei

Topside maybe stimula swinhoei

Record 3

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Note on photo: I encountered the same unmarked butterfly in FRIM. The photo Record 3 is not the same butterfly as the one in the swinhoei photos.

Stopping by various small cul de sacs of wild vegetation, we could already spot 3 different species of skippers skipping around in the wet weeds, 1 very large iridescent topside-blue restless butterfly and your ubiquitous yellows, browns and rings.

Royal Assyrian record shot

Note on photo above: The Royal Assyrian wouldn't cooperate. It's one beautiful butterfly!

The remainder of the butterflies in these areas hung largely out of the camera's reach and we could only admire them from the muddy ground where we stood.

Papilio nephelus sunatus (black and white helen)

Note on photo above: This butterfly wouldn't stay put. It eats on the move.

Deeper into Orang Asli village within the Gombak area, I was surprised to find a good number of butterflies puddling on sand mounds around houses and perched on potted vegetation.

Neptis hylas papaja (Common Sailor)

A photographer friend from KL mentioned that it was not atypical to find these species of butterflies hanging around in these areas.

Graphium sarpedon luctatius (common bluebottle)

A stream passes along the small village and it was here that I got my second and third leech bite (the first was in FRIM. I didn’t get bitten in Langkawi, Endau Rompin or Sarawak… how cool is that? The forest has been merciful).

Unid damsel

Note on photo above: I can't ID this damselfly. And don't want to just slap it with a wrong identification with lousy guesswork. Need to get myself that dragonfly book with photos instead of drawings.

A photographer handed me some tobacco to put over the bites. You’d be surprised at how effective it was. The bleeding stopped almost immediately and it didn’t itch during the night either.

Unid damsel2

Note on photo above: The red spot on the wing makes me hesitant to say that this is the Fenestrella.

The second site which we visited was a forested area in my friend's backyard: Hutan Simpan Ayer Hitam Puchong.

Ampittia dioscorides camertes (Bush hopper)

The entry into this forested area was next to a pretty lake studded with tall wooden stilts. It was the kind of backyard I always dreamed of living next to, complete with leeches and wild boars (as evidenced by wet excavation pits made by some very large boars).

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Note on photos above: Why did the tail-less chicken cross the road? To distract 3 men from their winged subject.

Unfortunately the wet weather didn't yield and there weren't much subjects to shoot. The vegetation was extremely dense and there was literally no sunlight penetration after a some metres into the dense forest cover.

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Note on photo above: I got leech bites. The stockings were not sheer enough. Sigh. Also photo of the friendly staff at MNS.

Since I was in KL, I took the opportunity to stock up on more books before I left. The books in MNS are almost 60% cheaper than they are over here. The difference is crazy.

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Note on photos above: Check out the fire over which the locals cook Lemang... a type of tasty glutinous rice.

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Turtle bug

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Below are some of the tasty rice treats which you can find along the roads around Gombak such as the Lemang, a glutinous fragrant rice snack cooked over a fire and eaten with spicy chicken (see pic below):

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In these Orang Asli villages, farm fowl roam free around the premises and even on the roads, mingling with an assortment of half-domesticated strays. The people who live in these huts are extremely friendly and very photogenic.

Child

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Butterfly Lollies

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:15:35 +0800

Moduza procris milonia on a stick

Another Small Window Of Blue

Today was another small rare window of sunshine.

And Mother Nature's rare birthday gift were some of my favourite skittlebugs on melastoma icky sweet sticks.

Moduza procris milonia (commander) on a stick

Backlit tatty Commander

I finally got another photo of the Commander. Unfortunately still without being able to isolate the butterfly completely in the photo. But at least it hung around... like lollipop on a stick... colourful, bright and immobile... for a few minutes... while it drank greedily from the fruits.

Commander lollipop

To add to my happiness, the Pandita Sinope Sinope also condescended to play lollipop on the same bush as the Commander.

Pandita sinope sinope (Colonel)

And even allowed for both upperside and underside shots... even though it did make us work pretty hard for them, circling and circling again.

Pandita sinope sinope lollipop

Also, the hoary palmer decided to show up while we were heading back. Yay. Record shot.

Very faded Rapala suffusa barthema (Suffused flash) feeding on melastoma

Hoary palmer

Semi transparent moth

This weekend was really great. A lot of the butterflies I've always wanted to shoot turned up. Like the topside-green arhopala which I'd spent so much time tracing before on a different trail.

Big mama of an archduke

Maybe Arhopala eumolphus maxwelli (Green Oakblue)

Euthalia monina monina female

Euthalia monina monina female lollipop

Even the usually skittish malay baron turned up in pairs to celebrate. And the male even cooperated to have a nice clean shot taken.

Euthalia monina monina male

Eulaceura osteria kumana (Purple duke) lollipop

Yellow vented hornet

Yellow-vented hornet (Vespa analis)

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"Blue Skies... talking about blue skies..."

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:12:03 +0800

Great eggfly hypolimnas bolina bolina

Note on photo above: Great eggfly in the sky...

Polyura hebe plautus (Plain Nawab)

Note on Plain Nawab: I clomped on in my heavy boots till I was somewhere around where Mr and Mrs Gandalf lived. And found to my surprise a Plain Nawab sitting on dog do. Eee~~... but yet amazing. So I laid down on the dog do laden grass and fired away at it. Later... I made faces at myself for doing so but it's not everyday you get a puddling Plain Nawab. So heck!

The Small Window

Today was one of those rare small windows when the sun was strong enough and the butterflies were zipping around in gay abandon. Blue skies, white clouds and plenty of Commanders and amazing clusters of Miletinae all along the different sites I walked from morning till afternoon.

Hypolycaena erylus teatus (Common Tit)

Note on photo above: Laying eggs? Or just being finicky? Just being finicky actually. Cos it's male.

Momentary elation

I confused the Common Tit with the Hypolycaena thecloides thecloides which I'd only ever shot in Semakau and was momentarily overjoyed until it flashed its blue upperside and then I was stuck in the patch trying to get an upperside shot of that strong inky blue.

(Autumn Leaf) Doleschallia bisaltide bisaltide

Common Tit upperside

Euthalia aconthea gurda (Baron)

Note on photo above: Trees were flowering in many places and with them came hordes of fighting and fluttering. The Autumn Leaf is a fast flyer and the Chocolate Pansies couldn't keep up with it... but they ardently chased it around anyway...

Good Patches

There were patches of activity everywhere. I came across 3 of the Autumn Leafs and plenty of Lascars, with 1 particularly large one which eluded me persistently and lead me along the path to this very tattered Flos Apidanus.

Tatty Flos apidanus

The Commander Baby (Caterpillar)

Moduza procris procris (Commander) caterpillar body

Moduza procris procris (Commander) head shot

Pemara pugnans (Pugnacious lancer)

Note on photos above of Commander: I'm sorry to say that the caterpillar of one of my favourite uncooperative butterflies look like poop.

I came across what I thought was dried bird poo at one point but realised the bird poo was alive when it raised its tail (see Moduza procris procris (Commander) caterpillar body photo above and note the narrower end) at me like a snake about to strike.

Said pose should have an effect of frightening people away... were it not for the fact that it's so eeny that it looks like a worm raising its head to look at you.

And then it should probably have used its head cos it has such a scary face reminescent of the scaly faces in alien movies.

Moduza procris procris (Commander) sulking

Note on Beast above and Blonde Beauty below: A face to scare all suitors away... ROAARRRR goes the scary caterpillar...and then it sulked disappointedly when I didn't go away.

The classic case of the Ugly Duckling who grows up to be a beautiful fast flying colourfully laced Commander and the fluffy blonde moth caterpillar below who will eventually become a shadowy, unremarkable looking, possibly short lived moth.

Fluffy bright yellow caterpillar

Tholymis Tillarga

I encountered my first not so commonly seen dragonfly in a long time. For the past months, the only uncommon dragonfly I'd come across was the white-mouthed Pseudothemis Jorina.

Tholymis tillarga male unique wing colouring

Tholymis tillarga male sideview

Tholymis tillarga male dragonfly

This is a male. Females are much paler. And check out that beautiful wing veination.

Pink eyed fly not in the sky

Because of the rains, sites typically trodden bare have been left undisturbed and I was surprised to find some places now overgrown with plants again. And even the flies seem to be much bigger too. Eek.

Hypolimnas anomala anomala (Malayan Eggfly)

Eggflies in the sky are a good thing. Especially if the sky is blue. The eggfly agrees and therefore it took about 10 monopod prods before it condescended to a lower perch for this shot to be taken.

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November's Rain

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:56:23 +0800

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It's been raining. Raining. Raining.

A dead yellow

Butterflies are either not there or they are dead or they are very lonely.

One lonely skppity

I brought the smore one to a trail but he refused to walk down any of the dodgey looking trails. He was elated to find a small farm belonging to I-wonder-who in the middle of 'nowhere' (not technically nowhere... not technically unremote either).

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Lime butterfly

What can you do for rainy monsoon weekends?

Walk your dog in the sweet smell of after the rain.

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What can you do if you don't have a dog?

Borrow a Labrador shaped Chocolate that belongs to someone else.

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S.A.M. and M.O.G.

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:10:48 +0800

SAM museum5

Note on photo above: Me n friends went down to check out the art museum party on Saturday. Some of them looked they came right out of a nightmare.

SAM museum3

Note on photo above: Neither my friend nor I dared to enter the room at the back... it was too eerie.

SAM museum

Note on photo above: Some installations were dreamy, cosy and wonderful.

Pink lady

Orchids in the sun

Note on photo above: I can bring my G10 everywhere!

Papilio prexaspes prexaspes (Blue Helen)

Broadway beng

Cethosia cyane (Leopard lacewing)

Note on photos above: And the forest sleeps on. Beds of flowers are left untended by their winged counterparts.

Logania marmorata damis

Note on photo above: I took ages to get a good shot of this pair.

Maybe Arhopala athada athada (Vinous Oakblue)

Lonolyce helicon merguiana (Pointed Line Blue)

Suastus gremius gremius (Palm bob)

Note on photos above: Pickings are far and few between.

Drupadia ravindra moorei (common posy) upperside

Note on photo above: I found a stretch of quiet trail. Where there was literally nothing except a low gutteral rumbling amongst the trees and this butterfly. I can't figure out what's making that sound.

Drupadia ravindra moorei (common posy) poses

Note on photo above: What a nice lil forward strutty pose you got there with all your tails nicely straightened out.

Chilades pandava pandava (Cycad blue)

Jamides alecto agelades (Metallic caerulean)

Hypolimnas bolina bolina (great eggfly)

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Some more G10 experimentation

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:18:38 +0800

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Colour acuity

For Your Eyes Only

Try this funny test: www.xrite.com

I have perfect colour sensitivity. So they say.

Just about everyone I know owns a G-series now.

Cooking with jamie

Raw fishy fishy

Steamed delicious

Drupadia ravindra moorei (common posy) topside3

Drupadia ravindra moorei (common posy) topside2

Drupadia ravindra moorei (common posy) topside

Drupadia ravindra moorei (common posy) underside

Female archduke topside (Lexias pardalis dirteana)

Why do the male archdukes not feed on the pineapples? Why do only the female archdukes come to feed on the pineapples?

(Lexias pardalis dirteana) female archduke

Male archduke (Lexias pardalis dirteana)

Close up to the female archduke (Lexias pardalis dirteana)

Note on photo above of male archdukes: The males raised their snarky butterfly eyebrows at the pineapples when offered as if I was trying to peddle them fish net stockings. But then they hovered around the pineapples and feeding females as if they secretly wanted fish net stockings... or maybe they were attracted to the females... hmmmm?

Male archduke topside (Lexias pardalis dirteana)

Note on photo above: No no... he won't sit on the pineapples. He'd sit on a fallen leaf, feed on a fallen fig and watch the females furtively from a quiet distance.

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Where Eagles Fly Over Sleeping Forests

nobody@vox.com(butterflyeffect) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:26:21 +0800

Where the eagles fly

Note on photo: Unprocessed photo. But look at that magnificent glare... this is one regal bird.

Where Eagles Fly

I brought one of the senior photographers to a little used trail which I found while waltzing around a frequented site. But it yielded a lonely Archduke which sat on my lap momentarily while I cut up butterfly bait ... and then the trail was swallowed back up into the forest due to lack of use and it was difficult to make headway.

We then went down to a little trail down to a small stream and that was where this magnificent creature swooped down and graced us with its awesome presence.

Neptis leucoporus cresina (grey sailor)

Note on photo above: One very tame and very grey sailor. And then there was nothing. The forest was asleep.

The Sleeping Forest

The eagle soared away almost noiselessly even though it was so huge. It went out into the open where it circled high above the earth, riding the currents effortlessly with its huge wings.

And then there was quiet. A peaceful restful quiet. Like the forest was steeped in a deep sleep. Even the normally skittish grey sailor was uncommonly slow and comfortable with our presence, perched on the leaf as if hypnotised by the gentle rocking of the leaves in the slight breeze.

Papilio demoleus malayanus (mating lime butterflies)

Note on photo above: Even the limes seemed fast asleep

The Spell Spills Over

The forest and its inhabitants were not the only ones under the spell. The butterflies in the enclosure were also uncommonly cooperative, such as this pair of Lime butterflies, allowing us to position them gently on flowers where it seems they promptly fell back asleep in each other's 'embrace'.

Lime butterflies on their host plant

Junonia almana javana (peacock pansy)

Note on photo above: Unprocessed photo. The peacock pansy's eyes look almost closed and encrusted over with sleep. Or it's just my imagination.

Hanging out over pineapples

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