Butterflies of Singapore

Book Review - Common Butterflies of Sri Lanka
by Himesh Dilruwan Jayasinghe

A friend from Sri Lanka, Malinga Prabhasara, recently sent me a book that was hot off the press. Titled "Common Butterflies of Sri Lanka" by Himesh Dilruwan Jayasinghe, this 175-page A5 sized book features 100 species of butterflies that are commonly found in Sri Lanka. Sponsored and published by the Ceylon Tea Services PLC the book is a project backed by the Dilmah Conservation (the famous Sri Lankan tea brand known all around the world)

Map of Sri Lanka showing major towns (left) and topographical map (right)

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country near the south-east of India in South Asia. Sri Lanka is a republic, governed by a presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital, and largest city, of Colombo. It is also an important producer of tea, coffee, gemstones, coconuts, rubber, and the native cinnamon, the island contains tropical forests and diverse landscapes with a high amount of biodiversity.

Blue Tiger (Tirumala limniace) ; Joker (Biblia ilithyia) ; Ceylon Lacewing (Cethosia nietneri)

Covering a land mass of 65,525 sq km, this island nation has a population of about 21 million residents. It is a country that is well known for its rich history and culture, having been once a colony of the Portuguese, Dutch and English at different times in the past. Lying within the Indomalaya ecozone, although the country is relatively small in size, it has the highest biodiversity density in Asia. A remarkably high proportion of the species among its flora and fauna, 27% of the 3,210 flowering plants and 22% of the mammals, are endemic.

One of the endemic species of Sri Lanka, the Jewel Four-Ring (Ypthima singala)

There are about 245 species of butterflies in Sri Lanka. The amazing fact is that there are about 26 species that are endemic to Sri Lanka! Being classified as endemic means a species is unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation, country or other defined zone, or habitat type, and occurs nowhere else in the world.

The Common Butterflies of Sri Lanka is quite logically organised, not unlike many books of this genre. Starting with the usual foreword, preface and acknowledgements, the book has the requisite basic introduction to butterflies, covering the life history from egg to adult, adult diet, protective mechanisms, mating and so on. There is a full checklist of the butterflies of Sri Lanka with good information about their distribution.

The useful "how to use this book" pages - featuring the keys and symbols used for each species page

The organisation of each species page contains a lot of information, starting with size - large, medium, small and tiny (with reference sizes), the status of each species based on the IUCN convention and whether it is endemic. The six butterfly families are organised taxonomically into the six known family groups.

Typical species pages featuring the families Papilionidae, Pieridae and Nymphalidae

The description on each page is detailed, covering the physical attributes of the butterfly species, their behaviour and distribution. Information on the larval food plants (what we call here as caterpillar host plants) accompanies each species. Each species page features a page-width picture of the butterfly and a smaller inset of either the female or upper/underside of the species.

The Lycaenidae page (bottom) featuring the Monkey Puzzle (Rathinda amor) a pretty hairstreak that is on my hit list!

Each species has its English common name in bold text, followed by the scientific name up to species level only. A nice feature on the page is a small map of Sri Lanka, illustrating the species' distribution on the island - more abundant, less abundant and absent and colour coded for easy reference.

Hesperiidae pages from the book

Personally, I find that the text font used is a bit thin and hard to read. Perhaps the author could have used a bolder text to make the book easier to read (particularly by the more senior members of our community). The pictures for the species are large enough to show their distinguishing features and many are of high quality. However, the pictures could be adjusted slightly brighter, as there is a general perception of the shots being a tad dark when I flipped through the book.

Crossover between Lycaenidae and Riodinidae pages. Sri Lanka has only one species of Riodinidae

The six families are featured one after another, without a break or separation between the families. Although the families are colour-coded, it would have been better to at least have a break between the families so that a reader is aware when one family ends and another starts. However, it is acknowledged that this may be impractical, particularly for the Riodinidae, where there is only one known species in Sri Lanka.

Featuring the endemic species of Sri Lanka - these species are found only in Sri Lanka and nowhere else

At the end of the book is a section showcasing the endemic species of Sri Lanka. It is also noteworthy that the acknowledged National Butterfly of Sri Lanka, is the Sri Lankan Birdwing (Troides darsius), an endemic species that can be found nowhere else but in Sri Lanka.

Larval host plants section showing photos of the plants featured in the species pages

The special section on larval host plants is useful as an aid to identify these plants in the field and as additional knowledge for the enthusiast to be aware of which butterfly species' caterpillars uses these plants as their host plant.

Sri Lanka's National Butterfly, the Sri Lankan Birdwing (Troides darsius), an endemic species that is found only in Sri Lanka and nowhere else in the world, a valid claim that no other country can contest!

All in all, I found the book informative and useful. Though it only features less than half of the total number of species found in Sri Lanka, I am sure the book will be useful for beginners and the amateur enthusiast who may encounter these butterflies in the field. My heartiest congratulations to the author for a job well done, and for adding new knowledge and information to our butterfly world!

Book Review by Khew SK : Photos by Malinga Prabhasara and scans of the book courtesy of the author Himesh Jayasinghe.

References :

Common Butterflies of Sri Lanka, Himesh Jayasinghe, Ceylon Tea Services PLC, 2015
A Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Sri Lanka, H Jayasinghe, C De Alwis and S Rajapaksha, Chamitha de Alwis, 2013

Special thanks to Malinga Prabhasara for taking the extra trouble to send me the two books on Sri Lankan butterflies, and for his photos featured on this blog article

Butterfly of the Month - March 2015
The Bamboo Tree Brown (Lethe europa malaya)

The 3rd month of 2015 started quite uneventfully, with nothing out of the ordinary with regard to world news, besides the usual stuff filling our news portals daily. The weather is a lot drier now in Singapore, as the shift from the wet months of the year end gave way to rainless days and parched landscapes. Some sporadic bush fires that occurred were promptly put out by our efficient Fire Service (SCDF).

We are well into the Chinese zodiac's Year of the Goat now, as our new year celebrations ended after 15 days of feasting and tossing raw fish salad with vociferous "huat ah" during our numerous traditional "lo-hei" sessions to bring good luck for the coming year. And lucky were two punters, who won S$6M apiece in the Singapore Toto Lunar New Year Hongbao draw!

Speaking of fish, the spate of fish deaths in the waters of Singapore continues to be a mystery. It was reported that on Feb 28, a wave of plankton bloom wiped out almost all fish stock at several fish farms on the eastern coast of Singapore. The authorities said that as of early March, the bloom had killed an estimated 500 to 600 tonnes of fish after affecting 55 out of 63 fish farms along the East Johor Straits and like an invisible spectre, continues to spread within Singapore's waters. The plankton bloom is known to suck oxygen from the sea, hence killing all life in the water. Another symptom of global warming?

This month's feature butterfly is the Bamboo Tree Brown (Lethe europa malaya). The Bamboo Tree Brown primarily occurs in lowland forests where its preferred host plant, the bamboo, is cultivated. It is likely that its caterpillars may also feed on several species of Bambusa and other related types of monocotyledons in Southeast Asia.

A Bamboo Tree Brown shot in Southern Thailand, where the same subspecies malaya is also found

The butterfly appears to be more often observed during the rainy season months of the year and is most active the early and late hours of the day. In rural areas, it is occasionally attracted to the lights in houses, perching on the walls under the lights until a hungry house lizard (or locally known as the chichak) comes by.

This species is surprisingly uncommon and local in Singapore, where only a small number of sightings of the butterfly has been recorded and in very localised areas. Some areas where it was seen were at the Khatib Bongsu, Sime Forest, Pulau Ubin and at the Singapore Botanic Gardens (always not far from where its host plant grows).

A Bamboo Tree Brown perching on a sign at the Bamboo Grove at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where it is often spotted

The Bamboo Tree Brown flies in a hopping manner quite similar to the related Mycalesis and Orsotriaena species and remains close to the ground. It stops to rest on the top surfaces of leaves or twigs, with its wings folded upright. The butterfly is skittish and has a wide circle of fear and is usually difficult to approach to photograph. A lot of patience on the part of the photographer is required before a decent shot of this butterfly can be achieved.

This species usually lurks in the vicinity of shady undergrowth amongst bamboo clumps and leaf litter. Once it is disturbed and springs from the undergrowth, it is not easy to track as it flies quickly and its cryptic underside wing patterns camouflages itself when it lands amongst thick bushes and dried leaves.

Occasionally, it is attracted to tree sap and rotting fruit on the forest floor, and whilst it feeds greedily, it may be distracted and gives an observer a better chance of approaching it before it flies off again. It is very rarely seen to display the upperside of its wings.

The Bamboo Tree Brown is predominantly brown above, with females having a wider subapical band on the forewing compared to the male. The undersides bear a number of cryptic patterns with thick lilac ocelli on the forewing. There is a short "tail" at vein 4 of the hindwing.

In Singapore, it is the 2nd largest species amongst the Satyrinae found here, only slightly smaller than the Common Evening Brown (Melanitis leda leda) which is another species whose caterpillar also feeds on monocotyledons.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Chng CK, Antonio Giudici, Federick Ho, Huang CJ, Khew SK, Loke PF, Jonathan Soong and Anthony Wong

Life History of the Ultra Snow Flat (Tagiades ultra)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Tagiades Hübner, 1819
Species: ultra Evans, 1932
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 37-43mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plant: Dioscorea glabra (Dioscoreaceae).

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:

On the upperside, the wings are dark brown. On the forewing, there is a white hyaline spot in each of spaces 4,5,6,7,8 and 11. The forewing cell features an upper spot, which usually accompanied with a smaller lower spot. On the hindwing, there is a large white tornal area with its inner edge reaching vein 6. In this whitened area, there are black marginal spots at the end of veins 1b, 2 3 and 4. There are additional black post-discal spots in spaces 5 and 6, lying at the edge of the whitened area. Underneath, the wings are similarly marked as per above but with the whitened area on the hindwing extended to the basal area.

A Ultra Snow Flat perching on the underside of a leaf.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:
This species is moderately rare in Singapore and its distribution is restricted to forested areas of the catchment reserves and in western wastelands. The adults are strong flyers and are more active in the cooler hours of the day. As is the case for the other Tagiades species, the adults have the habit of perching on the underside of a leaf between flights, and with its wings opened flat.

A Ultra Snow Flat visiting a flower of Asystasia gangetica in a western wasteland.

Early Stages:
To date only one local host plant, Dioscorea glabra, has been recorded for the Ultra Snow Flat. This plant can be found growing at a few sites within the local nature reserves. It is possible that some other Dioscorea spp. present in the nature reserves could turn out to be the larval host with further field observations. The caterpillars of the Ultra Snow Flat feed on leaves of the host plant. When not feeding, the caterpillars seek safety and concealment in a leaf shelter formed by cutting and folding a leaf fragment along the edge of the leaf.

Local host plant: Dioscorea glabra.

A mother Ultra Snow flat ovipositing on a young leaf of Dioscorea glabra.

The eggs of the Ultra Snow Flat are laid singly or in small groups of 2 to 3 on the leaf surface (typically near the leaf tip) of a young leaf of the host plant. The pale brownish egg is hemispherical with surface marked with longitudinal ridges running from the pole to the rim of the base. The egg is well concealed in a mass of very fine and pale brownish setae deposited by the mother butterfly. Each egg has a basal diameter of about 0.8mm.

Two eggs of the Ultra Snow Flat.

The empty egg shells of the same two eggs after the caterpillars have emerged.

The egg takes about 3-4 days to hatch. The young caterpillar emerges by eating away the polar part of the egg shell. The rest of the egg shell is not eaten by the newly hatched which is about 2mm in length. The yellowish body is roughly cylindrical in shape and the head capsule is black in color. A prominent, black collar mark is present on the dorsum of the prothorax.

Two views of a newly hatched caterpillar, length: 2.1mm.

A sequence of three shots showing the construction of the very first leaf shelter by the newly hatched.

The newly hatched makes its way to the leaf edge to construct its very first leaf shelter right away. It ventures out of the shelter from time to time to feed on the leaf lamina in the vicinity. As the caterpillar grows, the body assumes a green undertone. After reaching about 4.5mm in about 2.5-3 days, the caterpillar moults to the 2nd instar.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 3.5mm.

The body of the 2nd instar caterpillar is pale whitish to yellowish with a green undertone. There is no trace of the black collar mark on the prothorax seen in the 1st instar. The head is black and broadened sideways to two short tips at the upper end. The surface of the body is dotted with numerous tiny whitish speckles. This instar lasts about 2.5-3 days with the body length reaching about 7.5mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 4.75mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 7.2mm.

The 3rd instar caterpillar closely resembles the 2nd instar caterpillar. The head capsule is still black but broader sideways and with the two raised tips more prominent. The tiny speckles are now mostly yellowish. This instar takes about 3 days to complete with body length reaching about 12-13mm.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 7.5mm.

Two views of 3rd instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 12.5mm.

The 4th instar caterpillar is little changed from the 3rd instar in both body markings and coloration. This instar lasts about 4 days with body length reaching about 22-24mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, length: 19.5mm.

Two views of a late 4th instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult.

The 5th instar caterpillar has similar body markings as in the 4th instar but the colour of its head has become pale reddish brown. As growth progresses in this instar, the body markings become increasing yellowish. The 5th instar lasts for about 6-7 days, and the body length reaches up to 34-36mm.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 20.5mm.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, later in this stage, length:36mm.

On the last day of 5th instar, the body decolorises to a very pale shade of yellowish green. The caterpillar ceases feeding and confines itself to the leaf shelter. The pre-pupatory larva prepares for the pupal phase with a series of silk construction work with the main pieces being a silk girdle across the dorsum of its early abdominal segments, and a short and thickened transverse silk band on the substrate at its posterior end. Soon the pre-pupatory larva becomes dormant in its leaf shelter. Pupation takes place about 1 day later.

A pre-pupa of the Ultra Snow Flat.

The girdled pupa is secured with its cremaster attached to the short transverse band on the substrate. It has a short thorax, a rather long abdomen, a pointed rostrum and two small ear-like appendages at the leading edge of the mesothorax. The body is pale beige brown with two large triangular white patches at the two ends of the wing pad. Length of pupae: 20.5-21.5mm.

Two views of a pupa of the Ultra Snow Flat.

After about 7 days of pupal development, the pupal turns dark in the wing pad and thorax areas. The following day, the adult butterfly emerges from the pupal case.

Two views of a mature pupa of the Ultra Snow Flat.

A newly hatched Ultra Snow Flat, with the inset showing its underside.

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 Henry Koh, Tan Ben Jin, Loke PF, Chng CK, Sunny Chir, Khew SK and Horace Tan

Life History of the Bamboo Paintbrush Swift (Baoris farri farri)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Baoris Moore, 1881
Species: farri Moore, 1878
Sub-species: farri Moore, 1878
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 36-40mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plants: Bambusa_heterostachya (Poaceae; common name: Malay Dwarf Bamboo), Bambusa vulgaris (Poaceae, common names: Common bamboo, Buloh Minyak, Buloh Kuning).

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:

On the upperside, the wings are dark brown. The forewing has hyaline spots in spaces 2-4, 6-8 and 2 cell spots. The female is usually fully spotted and has an additional non-hyaline spot in space 1b on the forewing. The hindwing does not bear any spot, but the male has a black hair tuft in the cell on top of a scent pouch (hence "Paintbrush" in its common name). On the underside, the wings are pale brown and similarly ``spotted'' as per the upperside.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:

The Bamboo Paintbrush Swift is moderately rare in Singapore. Sightings typically took place in parks, urban gardens and forested areas where clumps of bamboo are growing in the vicinity. The swift-flying adults are relatively large and have been observed to vist flowers for nectar and perching on leaves to sunbathe in sunlit conditions.

Early Stages:

The Bamboo Paintbrush Swift has been bred on two bamboo spp., namely, Bambusa heterostachya and Bambusa vulgaris. Several other bamboo species, yet to be identified, also serve as the larval host plants. The caterpillars feed on leaves of these bamboo spp. and live in leaf shelters formed from cutting/folding leaf fragments.

Local host plant #1: Bambusa_heterostachya.

Local host plant #2: Bambusa vulgaris.

The eggs are laid singly on the upperside of a leaf of the host plant. Each dome-shaped egg is whitish with a small reddish patch at the top where the micropyle is situated. The basal diameter is about 1.8-1.9mm.

Two views of an egg of the Bamboo Paintbrush Swift.

It takes about 4-5 days for the egg to hatch. The young caterpillar eats just enough of the shell to emerge, and has a length of about 3-3.2mm. Its pale yellowish body is cylindrical in shape and has a tuff of few moderately long setae at the posterior end. The head capsule is black. A black collar mark can be found the dorsum of the prothorax. The newly hatched nibbles away most of the egg shell remnant before proceeding to construct its first leaf shelter.

Two views of a mature egg of the Bamboo Paintbrush Swift with the larval head visible through the hole.

A newly hatched caterpillar in its very first leaf shelter.

The body turns yellowish green after the caterpillar has a few sessions of the leaf diet. By the time the caterpillar lies dormant for its moult to the 2nd instar, its length has reached 6-6.5mm. The 1st instar takes about 4-5 days to complete.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, length:5.1mm.

A late 1st instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length:6.3mm.

The 2nd instar caterpillar has a pale yellowish green body, and the head capsule is still black. The black collar mark on the prothorax has faded to become almost indistinguishable. This instar lasts about 3-4 days with the body length reaching about 9.5-10.5mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, length: 8.8mm.

The 3nd instar caterpillar still has a black head capsule but its body is now whitish with a slight hint of yellowish green. There is no longer any trace of the black collar mark on the prothorax. This instar lasts a total of 3-4 days with the body length reaching about 14-15mm.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, newly moulted.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, length: 14.8mm.

The 4th instar caterpillar resembles the 3rd instar caterpillar closely. The body appears to be more whitish than that of the 3rd instar. This penultimate instar lasts 4-5 days with the body length reaching up to 24-25mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 4th instar caterpillar, length: 13.8mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 20mm.

As in the 4th instar, the 5th instar caterpillar has a whitish body with a slight yellowish green undertone. In a prominent change, its head capsule is now mainly white but black along the periphery and various sulci (groove/furrow). Two bold and black stripes rise from the adfrontal area. The anal plate is unmarked as in the all previous instars. This final instar takes about 6-7 days to complete with the body length reaching 40-41mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 5th instar caterpillar, length: 20mm.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, length: 30.5mm.

Towards the end of 5th instar, the body of the caterpillar shortens in length and body colour assumes a uniform shade of pale lime green. It seeks out the underside of a leaf blade and forms a shallow but half-open shelter with silk threads at both ends. The body excretes a moderate amount of white waxy material at this stage. Within the shelter, a silk girdle and a silk pad are then spun. Once the caterpillar attaches its claspers to the silk pad, it enters the dormant prepupatory phase which lasts about one and a half day.

A dormant pre-pupa of the Bamboo Paintbrush Swift.

The pupa secures itself with the silk girdle and with its cremaster attached to the silk pad. It has a short thorax, a rather long abdomen, a moderately long. The marking-free body is lime green in the thorax and wing pads but more yellowish green in the abdomen. Length of pupae: 33-36mm.

Two views of a pupa of a male Bamboo Paintbrush Swift, length: 25mm.

Two views of a mature pupa of the Bamboo Paintbrush Swift.

Six to seven days later, the pupa turns mostly black and forewing spots are noticeable in the wing pads. The next day, the adult emerges from the pupa.

A newly eclosed Bamboo Paintbrush Swift.

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 Frederick Ho, Koh Cher Hern and Horace Tan

NParks Butterfly Count 2015
Pre-Survey Training Sessions

The NParks Butterfly Count 2015 is a citizen science initiative, organised by NParks in collaboration with ButterflyCircle, to get Singaporeans involved in collecting valuable information about the butterflies in our parks and gardens.

Butterfly class in progress!

With the data collected from many survey transects from the various parks around Singapore, information on the distribution about butterflies can be pieced together to enhance park management and conservation measures. For example, if a park has a low butterfly count, more host and nectaring plants could be cultivated at the park to attract more butterflies.

NParks' Zhou Boyi sharing the key features to look out for when trying to ID butterflies

Members of the public, corporate, community and school groups are encouraged to sign up to participate in the island-wide butterfly count, focusing mainly on parks and gardens in Singapore. For participants who are new to butterfly identification, three sessions of basic butterfly identification and survey methodology were held in August to help these participants familiarise themselves with butterflies and how to ID them.

After the basic one-day training, participants will then be assigned to a designated park nearest to their homes to conduct the butterfly survey. The survey period will be over a week from 5 - 13 Sep 2015. The data collected will then be submitted to NParks for analysis which will result in management strategies to improve butterfly diversity in our parks.

Attentive students in class

ButterflyCircle members were involved in two of these training sessions for the NParks Butterfly Count 2015. Each training session had about 60+ participants with knowledge about butterflies ranging from total beginner to intermediate. The first session was held on 2 Aug at Singapore Botanic Gardens. The session started with a lecture about butterflies - some background information, morphology, interesting features, behaviour, early stages, other interesting data, etc. NParks' Zhou Boyi also presented a series of slides on butterfly identification and the features to look out for in the different species of butterflies.

The audience ranged from young kids to senior citizens. Everyone listened intently and a few were curious enough to ask many questions about butterflies. As it was a hot sunny day, everyone was raring to go out to show off their newfound skills in identifying butterflies. Each group, led by ButterflyCircle facilitators, took two transects to record their sightings of butterflies. ButterflyCircle veterans Federick Ho, Koh Cher Hern, Loke PF and Chng CK led their respective groups with NParks staff.

Everyone look up! There's a butterfly fluttering somewhere up in the trees!

It was fun as each group tried to record as many butterflies as they could. One comment from a participant was that, in the field, there was an added dimension of the characteristic of how different species have different flight patterns. Also, it was difficult to identify a fast flying butterfly or to be able to see the diagnostic features of the butterfly to ID it confidently.

Butterfly survey well under way

The second training session was held on 15 Aug 2015, also to another group of enthusiastic participants. Questions came fast and furious in the lecture room at Ridley Hall of the SBG. The younger participants were quick to pick up the differences between the lookalike butterflies, whilst the older members in the audience scrutinised their reference sheet carefully.

Mr Foo and the Seletar CC gang leading a group of 'students' on a survey transect

This session was facilitated by ButterflyCircle members Simon Sng and Huang CJ, but also in attendance was the founder of the Seletar Country Club's Butterfly Garden, Mr Foo Jit Leang and his enthusiastic bunch of knowledgeable lady members. The groups were assigned by NParks' Zhou Boyi, and off we went to our designated transects to start with the survey.

Basic rules of the Pollard Method of surveying butterflies. Image © NParks

Using the Pollard Method of survey, each group tried to document as many species of butterflies and the numbers of individuals spotted over each transect. Each short 200m transect took about 20 minutes to survey, and each group tackled two different transects at SBG to try their hand at surveying butterflies and recording the data in a simple format prepared by NParks.

NParks Zhou Boyi showing the group how to use the SGBioAtlas app

We hope that the short training session to identify about 20 common urban species would whet the appetites of the groups, enough for them to independently survey the parks in the vicinity of their homes. From 5-13 Sep, the official surveys will commence, and the participants who signed up for the survey can conduct their surveys on any of these days. Information to record include the weather, time of survey and the numbers and variety of species spotted.

SGBioAtlas app where field sightings of butterflies can be recorded by anyone! Image © NParks

Besides regular surveys conducted in the parks, NParks invites members of the public to submit photos of butterflies they have seen through the SGBioAtlas app (available on iTunes and Google Play Store) between 5 – 13 September to help us document the various butterfly species living around us. The SGBioAtlas app allows sightings to be geotagged and locations where the butterfly was encountered to be saved and subsequently submitted. It also has a comprehensive butterfly field guide to help users identify the species of butterfly spotted.

A happy group led by ButterflyCircle member Chng CK after their successful outing!

So to all the survey participants out there, go out and have fun and try your best to document all the butterflies that you spot in your nearby parks. A good day to be out there would be on Polling Day on 11 Sep. After casting your vote, head out to your nearby park and enjoy the extra public holiday whilst doing a bit of volunteer service to help NParks make our parks more butterfly-friendly for everyone to enjoy!

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Chng CK, Huang CJ, Khew SK, Loke PF, Simon Sng and Zhou Boyi.

Butterflies' Larval Host Plants #3
The Saga Seed Tree (Adenanthera pavonina )

This 3rd instalment of our Butterflies' Larval Host Plants series features Adenanthera pavonina, a species in Fabaceae (bean family) which is a family of flowering plants known for their nitrogen-fixation ability. With about 18000-old species, Fabaceae is the third largest land plant family, and its members take on a variety of growth forms (trees, shrub, herb, vine, liana). The Saga Seed tree is a perennial member which assumes the tree form.

The Saga Seed tree is native to India and Southern China, but it has been introduced to many countries in the tropics. In Singapore, it is commonly planted in parks/gardens and on roadside for shade and ornamental purposes. It is noteworthy that one particular Saga Seed tree in the Singapore Botanic Garden has even achieved the Heritage Tree Status. Different parts of the Sage Seed tree have been shown to serve useful purposes. For examples, the timber has been used in house and cabinet making, and the wood produces a red dye and used in tonics.

Plant Biodata :
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Adenanthera
Species: pavonina
Synonyms: A. gersenii, A. polita, Corallaria parvifolia
Country/Region of Origin: India, South China
English Common Names: Saga Seed Tree, Red Sandalwood, Red Bead Tree
Other Local Namezs: 孔雀豆 , 海红豆
Larval Host for Butterfly Species: Plain Nawab, Blue Nawab and Common Imperial.

Two Saga Seed trees growing on the side of a jogging track in Jurong Lake Park.

A fast growing tree with spreading canopy, the Saga Seed tree can grow up to 20m. It features compound bipinnate leaves. Each leaf is about 10-40cm long with up to 6 pairs of side stalks each of which bearing 9-15 pairs of leaflets. The leaves are shed every 6-8 months, with the leaves turning from green to yellow before dropping off.

Saplings of the Saga Seed tree found alongside a pavement in the Mount Faber Park.

A young leaf in the early stage of growth.

The young developing leaves are yellow to yellowish brown, but turning yellowish green to dark green when they mature. The young leaves are edible, and have been used with the bark to make a decoction in traditional medicine for treatment of diarrhoea.

Two side stalks of leaflets, with the lower one fully matured.

Mature leaves of the Sa.

Flowers of the Saga Seed Tree are small and creamy yellow. They occur in dense clusters on long stalks (8-12cm long). These flowers are faintly scented and turn dull orange when they age.

Stalks of flower buds of the Saga Seed Tree.

Stalks of flowers and flower buds of the Saga Seed Tree.

Close up views of a stalk of flower bud (left); flowers (centre, right).

Close up view of young flowers.

Close up view of individual flowers.

The fruits occur in long (10-20cm), curved pods. As a pod develops, bulges corresponding to the location of seeds grow in size. The pod turns brown when it is ripened, and it then splits open in two twisted halves to reveal the scarlet seeds. Each seed is hard and near heart-shaped. The ripened pods will eventually fall and litter the ground below the tree. Cooked seeds are edible although the raw seeds are toxic. The seeds have many other uses including being used as beads in jewellery (as beads), as industrial lubricants (oil extracts from seed), as unit of weights in ancient India and even as symbols of love in China (Chinese name: 相思豆).

Young fruits of the Saga Seed Tree with the bulges barely noticeable.

Fully developed pods of the Saga Seed Tree.

Ripened pods still attached to the mother tree.

Close-up view of a ripened pod fallen to the ground.

Close-up view of a seed of the Saga Seed Tree.

In Singapore, the Saga Seed tree also serves as the larval host plant for three butterfly species: Plain Nawab, Blue Nawab and Common Imperial. The first two are Charaxinae (a nymphalid subfamily) species, while the last one is a lycaenid.

A Plain Nawab butterfly.

A Blue Nawab butterfly.

A Common Imperial butterfly.

Eggs of these three butterfly species are typically laid by the mother butterfly on the stem/leaves of a young plant of the Saga Seed Tree at low heights (knee height to chest level). The eggs of the two Nawab species are mostly found laid on the upperside of a leaflet, with a few on the underside.

A female Plain Nawab laying an egg on the underside of a leaflet of the Saga Seed Tree.

An egg of the Plain Nawab found a leaflet of the Saga Seed Tree.

Eggs of the Blue Nawab found on the upperside of leaflets.

Caterpillars of all three species feed on leaflets of the Saga Seed Tree. The two Nawab species have the habit of building a "base camp" made from weaving several adjacent leaflets together.

A late penultimate instar instar caterpillar of the Plain Nawab resting in its base camp on a Sage Seed Tree in the Mount Faber Park.

An early 5th instar caterpillar of the Blue Nawab found alongside a park connector track in the west.

A final instar caterpillar of the Plain Nawab in its base camp found in the Telok Blangah Hill Park.

A final instar caterpillar of the Blue Nawab in its base camp found in the west.

Caterpillars of the two Nawab species typically pupate on the same Saga Seed Tree they have been feeding on. The pupation site is usually the underside of a stem or the rachis of a compound leaf. Likewise for Common Imperial, the pupation site is usually a spot on the stem of the same plant it feeds on.

A pupa of the Blue Nawab found in the vicinity of the Chinese Garden.

A pupa of the Plain Nawab found in the Dairy Farm Nature Park.

If you happen to encounter a young Saga Seed tree in your next outing in the field, try to look for the odd sight of a few leaflets weaved together. If you do find one, chances are you have found the base camp of a Nawab caterpillar and even the caterpillar itself. The most striking feature of Nawab caterpillars is their dragon-like head, hence it would be rather easy for you to know that you have found the real McCoy.

References:

The Concise Flora of Singapore : Hsuan Keng Singapore University Press, 1990.

1001 Garden Plants in Singapore : Boo Chih Min, Kartini Omar-Hor and Ou-Yang Chow Lin, National Parks Board, 2nd Edition 2007.

Saga Tree - WideSingapore Blog.

Saga Seed Tree, Naturia web site.

Adenanthera pavonina, Wikipedia.

Text and Photos by Horace Tan.

Butterfly of the Month - September 2015
Anderson's Grass Yellow (Eurema andersonii andersonii)

The month of September 2015 will probably go down in Singapore's political history as an exciting month as 2,460,977 voters went to the polls on 11 Sep 2015. For the first time since independence in 1965, all 89 electoral seats were contested. This time around, up for grabs were 16 Group Representation Constituencies and 13 Single Member Constituencies.

An Anderson's Grass Yellow feeding on the flower of the Bandicoot Berry (Leea indica)

It was a very eventful period leading up to Polling Day as each political party held rallies, interviews and podcasts to articulate their manifestos and to persuade the electorate why they should be the voters' representative in Parliament. Social media played a key role, as Singaporeans turned to their favourite cyberspace platforms to read, comment and absorb all the excitement of the once-in-five year hustings.

The incumbent political party, People's Action Party (PAP) won 69.9% of the total valid votes cast - with over a 2/3 majority support from Singaporeans. With all the eligible voters casting their votes for the first time since 1965, this is probably a true reflection of the support from the citizens of Singapore. This is likely to be more representative of the 'silent majority'. Social media, anti-establishment sites and grousing keyboard warriors only form about 30% of the 'alternative voice' supporters (although because of their cyberspace presence, this group appears to give an impression that they represent the majority view). Reality kicks in...

Puddling Anderson's Grass Yellows

On the environmental front, the almost-annual scourge that has become all-familiar with Singaporeans, Malaysians and Indonesians reared its ugly head once again. In the past week, many areas in the 3 countries were shrouded in the choking smog as large tracts of land were razed to the ground in Sumatra and Kalimantan. This yearly affair of clearing forests by burning the land during the dry season appears to have continued despite the Indonesian authorities' warnings to plantation owners.

One wonders how and when this persistent destruction of the land will stop? It is unimaginable that the Indonesian authorities are powerless to prevent this yearly damage. The feeling of helplessness and frustration that Malaysians and Singaporeans feel when the haze descends on us returns year after year with no end in sight. People with respiratory problems or sensitive to the acrid smog in the air will usually have to suffer in silence.

An Anderson's Grass Yellow feeding on the flower of the Mile-a-Minute creeper

The NParks Butterfly Count is ongoing (5-13 Sep) and it will be interesting to see how the haze will affect the numbers and diversity of the butterflies found in our urban parks and gardens. In previous years, when the haze was particularly thick and prolonged, the butterfly population was affected where the numbers dropped significantly.

An Anderson's Grass Yellow feeding on the flower of the Snakeweed (Stachytarpheta indica)

Our Butterfly of the Month for September 2015 is the Anderson's Grass Yellow. This species is one of six Grass Yellows from the genus Eurema found in Singapore. Unlike some of its cousins, the Anderson's Grass Yellow is almost found exclusively in the forested areas. It is moderately common where it occurs in the nature reserves, but cannot be said to be anywhere near the abundance of related species like the Common Grass Yellow and the Three Spot Grass Yellow.

The Anderson's Grass Yellow has a forewing length of about 17-20mm on average. occasionally, very small individuals are observed where the forewing length may drop to about 13-15mm. The species is usually found feeding on flowering plants along the fringes of the nature reserves.

Males of this species are also fond of puddling at sandy streambanks. More often than not, they are encountered singly, unlike the congregations of Common, Three Spot and Chocolate Grass Yellows that are occasionally encountered. They also display a habit of flying and hiding on the underside of a leaf to rest upside down. However, the butterfly is alert and skittish and is not easy to photograph when fluttering around.

The Anderson's Grass Yellow can be separated from the other lookalike Grass Yellows by a single cell spot on the underside of its forewing. There is usually a dark brown sub-apical streak on the forewing (which can sometimes be very indistinct or even absent). The upperside of the butterfly is a rich yellow with black marginal border on both the fore- and hindwings.

A newly-eclosed Anderson's Grass Yellow clinging on to its empty pupal shell

The species has been successfully bred on Ventilago maingayi and Ventilago malaccensis.The host plant is found growing wild in the forested nature reserves of Singapore. The plant is quite unique in that the young leaves of the plant are deep red whilst the mature leaves are green. The caterpillars feed almost exclusively on the young leaves.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Federick Ho, Khew SK, Jonathan Soong, Simon Sng, Horace Tan, Anthony Wong and Benjamin Yam

Life History of the Plain Lacewing (Cethosia methypsea methypsea)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Cethosia Fabricius, 1807
Species: methypsea Butler, 1879
Sub-species:methypsea Butler, 1879
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 60-80mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plant: A plant in Passifloraceae, with species ID to be confirmed.

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:

On the upperside, the forewing is black with a white subapical band (broader in the female than in the male) beyond the cell; the basal area is rich orange-red for the male and reddish brown for the female. The hindwing has a black border but is mainly rich orange-red in the male and reddish brown in the female, and there is a series of black spots embedded in the distal margin of the orange-red/reddish-brown area. On the underside, the wings are orange-red (with reddish areas confined to the basal half) with white fasciae adorned with black spots. The forewing cell has several black-edged, pale blue transverse stripes. The wing borders are dark brown and deeply indented with lace-like pattern of white markings. The hindwing has a narrow white submarginal band in addition to the broad, white postdiscal band, both of which are bordered with a series of black spots.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:

The Plain Lacewing is rarely seen in Singapore and its local occurrence is confined to a small patch of forest in the catchment reserve. Adults have been sighted visiting flowers of flowering plants in forest clearings or alongside forest trails. At times, females can also be seen checking out leaves of its host plant in search of an ovipositing site.

Early Stages:

The local host plant is a vine in the Passifloraceae family and its exact species ID is yet to be determined. It has the distinctive feature of having a variety of leaf shapes and has tendrils which terminate in adhesive pads. Caterpillars of the Plain Lacewing feed on leaves, petiole and stems of the host plant. The Plain Lacewing caterpillars are gregarious throughout all five instars, often eating, resting and moulting together in groups.

Local host plant of the Plain Lacewing, showing the trilobate leaf form.

The eggs of the Plain Lacewing are laid in a moderately large cluster (in teens) on a leaf (underside), a petiole, a young stem or even a tendril. Each egg is pale yellow, barrel-shapped with a ribbed surface. Height: ~1.3mm, diameter of cross section: ~1mm.

A female Plain Lacewing laying eggs on the underside of a leaf.

A cluster of eggs of the Plain Lacewing laid on the petiole of a leaf of the host plant.

A cluster of eggs of the Plain Lacewing laid on the underside of a leaf of the host plant.

Each egg takes about 5-6 days to mature. The young caterpillar nibble away sufficiently large portion of the egg shell to emerge, and typically makes little effort to eat the remnant of the egg shell. The newly hatched has a cylindrical body in yellowish brown, and an initial body length of about 3mm. The body is covered in a grid of tubercles, each with a single long seta. The head is black and there is a pair of short black spines on the first thoracic segment. When feeding, the young caterpillar either skims the lamina on a young leaf or nibbles away at the surface of a young stem.

Two views of a mature egg of the Plain Lacewing.

Two views of a newly hatched caterpillar, length: 3mm.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 4mm.

As the 1st instar caterpillar grows, the body color darkens to orange and finally to wine-red. A faint white saddle mark appears on the 4th abdominal segment initially, but turns prominently white when the caterpillar lies dormant to moult. After 2-2.5 days in the 1st instar and reaching a length of about 5-6mm, the caterpillar moults to the next instar.

A group of 1st instar caterpillars, dormant prior to their moult.

The 2nd instar caterpillar has a dark wine-red body colour, and the rows of tubercles in the 1st instar are replaced by 6 longitudinal rows of dark fine-pointed spines, 3 to each side of the body. The spines in uppermost two rows are the longest. A pair of short and black coronal spine appears on the head. The white saddle is prominently marked. This instar lasts about 2-2.5 days with the body length reaching about 8-9mm before the next moult.

Two views of a group of 2nd instar caterpillars found in a nature reserve.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, length: 8mm.

The 3rd instar does not bring along any drastic change in physical appearance except for proportionately longer coronal spines (now about the same length as the height of the head capsule), and the larger and more distinct white saddle mark. This instar takes 2-3 days to complete with body length reaching about 15-16mm.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 10mm.

A group of 3rd instar caterpillars on the underside of a leaf of the host plant.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 15.5mm.

The coronal spines in the 4th instar caterpillar are again longer proportionately with the length of each spine about equal to the 1.5x height of the head capsule. The spines in the white body segment are now coloured entirely white except for their pointed tips. The upper half of the body is bright scarlet red (especially on the dorsum of 2nd-3rd thoracic segments and 1st, 2nd, 7th-9th abdominal segments), while the lower half is dark wine red. The 4th instar lasts about 2-2.5 days with body length reaching about 22-23mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 4th instar caterpillar.

A group of 4th instar caterpillars almost done with a leaf of the host plant, length: 15mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, length: 23mm.

The next moult brings the caterpillar to its 5th and final instar. The caterpillar retains the same body features as in the 4th instar. Now the coronal spines are about 2x the height of the head capsule, and the bright scarlet red dorsal patches appear on almost all body segments. This instar lasts for 3-4 days with the body length reaching up to 32-34mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 5th instar caterpillar, length: 24mm.

A group of early 5th instar caterpillars, nibbling at the tip of a stem.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, length: 32mm.

Toward the end of 5th instar, the caterpillar stops feeding and moves around in search of a pupation site. Finally the caterpillar finds a spot on the underside of a leaf, stalk or stem to spin a silk pad to which it secures itself with the claspers at its posterior end. Now the caterpillar is an immobile pre-pupa, hanging vertically from this pupation site. At times, several pre-pupae could be found in close proximity.

Three pre-pupatory larvae of the Plain Lacewing found on the underside of a leaf.

A group of 3 fresh pupae and a pre-pupa of the Plain Lacewing, on the underside of a leaf.

A Plain Lacewing caterpillar moults to its pupal stage.

Pupation takes place a day later. The pupa hangs vertically. It has two pairs of slender pointed white processes at the middle of its body and a number of less prominent dorsolateral processes. A pair of foliaceous processes adorn the head. Body color is pale brown mottled with white and black patches, and several dorsal spots of silvery/gold colour. Length of pupae: 28-30mm.

Three views of a pupa of the Plain Lacewing. Left: lateral view; Middle: ventral view; Right: dorsal view.

After about 6 days of development, the pupa becomes darkened. The next day the adult butterfly emerges to kick-start the around round of the life cycles for this species.

Three views of a mature pupa of the Plain Lacewing.

A Plain Lacewing emerges from its pupal case.

Newly eclosed Plain Lacewing clinging on to its pupal case.

References:

[C&P4] The Butterflies of The Plain Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Plainan Nature Society.

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 Jerome Chua, Chng CK, Loke PF, Koh Cher Hern, Frederick Ho, Sunny Chir and Horace Tan.

Two Additions to the Singapore Checklist
Purple Broken-Band Oakblue and Linna Palm Dart

Over the years, there have been several additions to the Singapore Checklist of species that have either been seasonal visitors or some that have established viable colonies to be considered permanent residents in Singapore. In the families Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae, there are many lookalike species where just field shots of butterflies may prove challenging to identify.

This is where voucher specimens are required, or where opportunities arise, the documentation of the early stages of the butterfly can help to confidently identify the species. In this series of updates to the Singapore checklist, we feature a total of six new species that have taken time to reliably identify these butterflies. In this article, we feature two species that will now be added to the Singapore Checklist.

The first is a species from the genus Arhopala, a group of butterflies that are extremely challenging to identify from field shots alone. In several cases, the variability of the species in terms of its physical diagnostic features makes it even more difficult to ID the species accurately. At times, both the upper and under side of the butterfly's wings need to be examined for a higher level of certainty of the ID.

In the case of the Purple Broken-Band Oakblue (Arhopala alitaeus pardenas) the life history was documented and several voucher specimens examined before we recorded this as an extant species in Singapore. This species belongs to the alitaeus group of which there are at least nine species in Malaysia and Singapore. The diagnostic features to separate them require close scrutiny of specimens.

Based on the literature and records in C&P4*, two species of the alitaeus group, A. pseudomuta and A. alitaeus are extant in Singapore. All the others are found in Malaysia and a few subspecies are isolated to the island of Langkawi. With the voucher specimens and scrutiny of the diagnosic features, we now have a higher confidence to record A. alitaeus pardenas as a re-discovery in Singapore.

The Purple Broken-Band Oakblue (this name was taken from Pisuth's Butterflies of Thailand Book) is described as having a weak purplish glaze on the underside of its wings. On the upperside, the male has a consistent 1.0 mm wide border and having more annular (curved or somewhat round in shape rather than jagged) markings on the underside. The female has a broad black border on both the fore- and hindwings.

On the forewing underside, there is a spot at the base of space 10. The post-discal spot in space 6 of the hindwing is rounded and overlaps the cell-end bar. The submarginal spots on the hindwing are individual spots versus band-like in the Raffles' Oakblue (A. pseudomuta).

With voucher specimens and early stages record, we now document this as a re-discovery and add the Purple Broken-Band Oakblue (Arhopala alitaeus pardenas) as species #319 in the Singapore Checklist.

The second species to be recorded as a new discovery is the Linna Palm Dart (Telicota linna). This species was not included in the early authors' checklists. Even as early as back in 2007, Horace Tan, our early stages expert, had bred this species on Bambusae, but identification at that point was lumped together with the extant species, T. augias. Dr TL Seow, our resident expert, had then tentatively identified it as T. ohara, another allied species due to the lack of a proper set specimen to refer to.

There was another amateur who claims to have recorded this species three years later in 2010, but was not a trustworthy source as he had shown a propensity for posting untruths and slanderous accusations under fake accounts. It is also curious as to whether this character possessed the proper permits from NParks to take material out of areas under the legal jurisdiction of the Singapore authorities. It is regrettable that this unfortunate individual set up a so-called blog (obviously not credible nor widely read) to resort to his mud-slinging activities.

In recent years, Horace Tan had further opportunities to breed this species and several more voucher specimens were obtained for closer scrutiny. Based on the observations done by Dr Seow, the clues to identifying this species and to distinguish it from the other 3 Singapore-extant lookalikes - T, besta, T. augias and T. colon, are the following features :

Male Telicota linna.

Forewing with the base of space 2 black or largely so (sometimes with a bit of orange shading).
Brand usually straight and not placed closer to the forewing cell or inner margin.
Underside hindwing veins across band not dark dusted.

Female Telicota linna.

Forewing generally darker, with much of basal orange darkened.
Forewing two cell end spots usually separate and roughly about equal in size.
Underside hindwing veins across band not dark-dusted.

It should be noted that for many of these lookalike species, the ID keys need to be combined with other diagnostic features and should not be used in isolation. For example for the characteristic in the male where the base of space 2 is black, this feature is also present in the Malaysian species of T. ohara, T. bambusae and T. hilda. All of these species have yet to be observed in Singapore, although there is no particular reason why they will not appear here in future.

With the voucher specimens available, we now record the Linna Palm Dart (Telicota linna) as species #320 in the Singapore Checklist. From 2015, ButterflyCircle has been working with the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum by supplying DNA material to set up a DNA barcode database for Singapore butterfly specimens. This is to ensure that the DNA data will be available for future reference when the technology is more conducive for the use of DNA to reliably identify butterflies.

There are currently no fewer than 10 species that are still under investigation and for which voucher specimens are being sought to validate the identity of these butterflies. These are mainly lookalike species in the Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae families. In a forthcoming blog article, we will feature two more Lycaenidae species that will be added to the Singapore Checklist.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Chng CK, Huang CJ, Khew SK and Horace Tan

Special thanks to Horace Tan for his patience and effort in documenting the early stages of these species and to Dr TL Seow for his persistence in scrutinising the voucher specimens to identify the species with a high level of confidence.

References :

*[C&P4] The Butterflies of The Plain Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malaysian Nature Society.
Butterflies of West Malaysia and Singapore, WA Fleming, 2nd Edition, Longmans, 1983
Butterflies of Thailand, Pisuth Ek-Amnuay, 2nd Edition, 2012

Special Note :
All voucher specimens, host plants and early stages collected within Parks or Nature Reserves under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Board are done with the permission of the National Biodiversity Centre Division of NParks. Specimens will be submitted to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum's Lepidoptera Collection for reference.

Life History of the Dingy Bush Brown (Mycalesis perseus cepheus)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Mycalesis Hübner, 1818
Species: perseus Fabricius, 1775
Subspecies: cepheus Butler, 1867
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 35-45mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plants: Ischaemum ciliare (Poaceae, common names: Smut Grass), Axonopus compressus (Poaceae, common names: Wide-leaved Carpet Grass, Cow Grass).

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:
On the upperside, the wings are dark greyish brown with a large but obscure ocellus in space 2 of the forewing. The male has a small, dark brown sex brand in space 1b of the forewing, and another one at vein 7 of the hindwing overlaid with a pale yellow hair tuff. On the underside, both wings are pale brown in ground colour (with the male in darker brown than the female) and have a clear-whitish post-discal band. There is a series of ringed ocelli in the submarginal area on both wings. In the forewing, the submarginal ocelli usually include only one ocellus in each of spaces 2 and 5, and two smaller ocelli in between. In the hindwing, there is a thin, dark indentation line stretching down to (but not beyond) vein 1b. Furthermore, the submarginal series of ocelli has an arched appearance with the ocellus in space 2 moved inwards and out of alignment with those in spaces 1b and 3.

A pair of Dingy Bush Brown. Left: male; Right: female.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:
The Dingy Bush Brown is a moderately common butterfly in Singapore. Adults can be sighted flying low, in and around grassy patches at several locations across the island. As with other Satyrinae members, the adults fly in an erratic and jerky manner as their wings are closed for a relatively long period during flights.

Early Stages:
Two grass species, Ischaemum ciliare and Axonopus compressus, have been recorded as larval hosts for the Dingy Bush Brown in Singapore so far. The caterpillars feed on leaves of the host plant, and have been observed to forcefully ejecting their frass pellets, a larval habit rarely seen outside the skipper/flat families. They tend to rest lengthwise on the underside of a leaf during pauses between feeds.

Forceful ejection of frass pellets by caterpillars (in all five instars) of the Dingy Bush Brown.

Local host plant #1: Ischaemum ciliare.

Local host plant #2: Axonopus compressus.

A mating pair of the Dingy Bush Brown.Left: male; Right: female.

The eggs are laid singly on the underside of a grass blade. Each oblate ellipsoidal egg (about 1.1mm in diameter and 1mm in height) is pale translucent green. The surface appears smooth to the naked eyes, but is actually sculptured with a polygonal reticulum when viewed with a macro lens.

Two views of an egg of the Dingy Bush Brown .

The egg takes about 3 days to hatch. The young caterpillar nibbles away a portion of the egg shell to exit and then proceeds to devour the rest of the egg shell almost entirely. It has a cylindrical body in whitish colour, and an initial body length of about 3.2mm. The body is covered with dorso-lateral and lateral rows of whitish setae. At the posterior end, there is a pair of backward-pointing processes. Its dark colored head features a number of setae and has a pair of short and rounded horns and a few lateral protuberances.

Two views of a newly hatched caterpillar, length: 3.25mm.

As a result of its leaf diet, the 1st instar caterpillar soon takes on a greenish undertone and its body lengthens gradually. The first instar lasts about 2.5-3 days with the body length increases to about 6-6.5mm.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, length: 6mm.

Two views of a late 1st instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 6.25mm.

In the 2nd instar, the cephalic horns become pointed and the two anal processes longer and thus pronounced. The few lateral conical protuberances on the head capsule are now much smaller and whitish in colour. The body is yellowish green. The head and body is also adorned with numerous minute tubercles, each with a single seta emanating from it. The 2nd instar lasts about 2.5-3 days with the body length reaches about 10-10.5mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 6.8mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, length: 8.5mm.

Two views of a late 2nd instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 10mm.

The 3rd instar caterpillar mostly resembles the previous instar. The head capsule is reddishbrown in the cephalic horns and the basal areas around the mouth parts but yellowish brown elsewhere. This stage also takes 2.5-3 days to complete with body length reaching about 14.5-15mm.

Two views of 3nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 10.2mm.

Two views of a 3nd instar caterpillar, length: 15mm.

Two views of a late 3nd instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 14.5mm.

The 4th instar caterpillar bears a close resemblance to the 3rd instar caterpillar with no obvious change of any features or markings. The 4th instar lasts about 4 days with body length reaching about 20-22mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 4th instar caterpillar, length: 14mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 20mm.

Two views of a late 4th instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 22mm.

The next moult brings the caterpillar to its 5th and final instar. Now the caterpillar could appear in two colour forms: a brown form which is mostly pale brown and a green form which is pale yellowish green. In a period of about 6 days, the body grows to a maximum length of about 40-41mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 5th instar caterpillar, green form, length: 19mm.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, green form, length: 32mm.

Toward the end of the 5th instar, the body gradually shrinks in length. Typically, the caterpillar will seek out a spot on the underside of a leaf blade to spin a silk pad. It then anchors itself there via its anal end, and assumes its upside-down pre-pupatory pose.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, brown form, late in this stage, length: 33.5mm.

A prep-pupa of the Dingy Bush Brown.

After one day as a pre-pupa, pupation takes place. The smooth pupa is mostly green throughout with its surface dotted with numerous tiny whitish spots. It is somewhat angular in appearance, with a small dorsal keel on the thorax and ridges defining the dorsal wing margins. There are a few small black spots dotting the wing pad margin. Dorso-lateral pairs of round and whitish spots can be observed on some abdominal segments. Length of pupae: 14-15mm.

Three views of a pupa of the Dingy Bush Brown.

After about 5 days of development, the pupa becomes darkened in color, and the ringed-spot on the forewings can now be seen through the pupal skin in the wing pads. The next day the eclosion event takes place with the adult butterfly emerges to start the next phase of its life cycle.

Three views of a mature pupa of the Dingy Bush Brown.

A newly eclosed female Dingy Bush Brown.

References:

[C&P4] The Butterflies of The Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malayan Nature Society.

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, Khew SK and Horace Tan

Two Lycaenidae to Make it 322!

Featuring Transparent Sixline Blue and Mutal Oakblue

In my earlier update to the Singapore Checklist, we saw the inclusion of a Lycaenidae and a Hesperiidae added to the list after the species' life histories were recorded and the voucher specimens examined. This week's article introduces two more species that are not easy to identify in the field without careful scrutiny of the physical features of the butterfly.

The first species featured here is one of the Lycaenidae from the genus Nacaduba. This genus comprises several lookalike species known as the Fourline and Sixline Blues. A number of the species found in Singapore look very similar and only with careful examination of their diagnostic wing markings can one separate them. The fact that these species are also variable across different individuals and sexes can also prove challenging to identify them with a high level of confidence.

The scrutiny of many photos and specimens collected during official NParks surveys indicated that one species, the Transparent Sixline Blue (Nacaduba kurava nemana) is extant in Singapore. Over the years, this species had been mis-identifed as one of its two close cousins - the Opaque Sixline Blue and the Rounded Sixline Blue. Indeed, the species are so similarly marked that they may often be confused with each other, particularly with worn-out or tattered specimens shot in the field.

With the help of ButterflyCircle forums' resident expert, Dr Seow TL, (and many discussions on the forums), we are now confident of the existence of the Transparent Sixline Blue. Besides the ID keys described in our references, Dr Seow has also added certain key characteristics that are consistent in this species.

Voucher specimen of a male Transparent Sixline Blue showing all the typical characteristics of this species

The Transparent Sixline Blue is described to have violet blue upperside in the male with the underside markings visible through the wings by transparency. The female upperside is pale shining blue with white patches beyond the forewing cell. The underside has the post-discal striae inwardly bounded by darker lines and the space between them paler than the ground colour of the wings.

A Transparent Sixline Blue shot at Seletar Country Club's Butterfly Garden

From Dr Seow's observations, he has added the following ID keys to separate this species from the other lookalikes :

Males :

The termen of the forewing is fairly straight.
Large submarginal spots (may be band-like) with rounded or scalloped inner margins; HW submarginal spot 6 large and very often quadrate (squarish).
Underside forewing base not darkened.
Upperside markings visible through the wings by transparency (although this diagnostic feature is almost impossible to ascertain in field shots except if the butterfly is sunbathing with open wings)

Females are more difficult to ID although the general features are applicable.

We record the Transparent Sixline Blue (Nacaduba kurava nemana) as species #321 in the Singapore Checklist. In the references, four other Nacaduba species - N. pendleburyi pendleburyi, N. hermus swatipa, N. subperusia lysa and N. russelli - all very similar looking species, should be further investigated and looked for in Singapore, as they have been recorded as extant by the early authors.

The next species of interest comes from the frustratingly-difficult to identify genus, Arhopala. This genus, with over 80 recorded species in Malaysia and Singapore, often proves challenging to separate the individual species. New species are still being described when additional information becomes available. This genus would benefit greatly from DNA sequencing and a database should be collated when the opportunity arises.

After ButterflyCircle member Tan Ben Jin discovered caterpillars of an Arhopala feeding on Lithocarpus bennetii in the nature reserves back in 2010, a long debate ensued and discussions on tracing the ID of the specimen initially proved futile. A later attempt at breeding the same species on the same plant by Horace Tan yielded further voucher specimens for examination.

Even with specimens bred from the same host plant, the voucher specimens that resulted from breeding appeared to have differences between individuals that suggest the existence of more than one species! However, Dr Seow is fairly confident of the identity of the Mutal Oakblue (Arhopala muta maranda) for us to record the re-discovery of this species in Singapore.

The Mutal Oakblue is a small butterfly of about 30mm wingspan and described as shining blue on the upperside, with the marginal borders increasing from 1.5 mm to about 2.0 mm at the apical area of the forewing. The hindwing is paler and a brighter blue contrasting with the forewing in a sidelight.

Male voucher specimen of the Mutal Oakblue (Arhopala muta maranda)

The female is a shining blue with a purple tinge and broad black borders. The post-discal spots on the brown underside appear more squarish, giving it a banded appearance. The spot in space 2 of the forewing is out of line with the adjacent spots and moved towards the termen. The species is tailless.

Pupa of a male Mutal Oakblue on the night before eclosion

With the relatively conclusive evidence of voucher specimens of this species, we record the Mutal Oakblue (Arhopala muta maranda) as species #322 in the Singapore Checklist. Further investigations continue, and it is highly likely that more species from the genus Arhopala will turn up sooner or later, depending on the availability of life history documentation and actual voucher specimens for examination.

In a forthcoming blog article, we will feature the addition of two more Hesperiidae to the Singapore Checklist after concluding early stages documentation and voucher specimens have confirmed the IDs of the skippers with a high level of confidence.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Foo Jit Leang, Khew SK, Tan Ben Jin and Horace Tan.

Special thanks to Ben Jin for discovering the Arhopala and Horace Tan for his patience and effort in documenting the early stages of these species and to Dr TL Seow for his persistence in scrutinising the voucher specimens to identify the species with a high level of confidence, in particular the Arhopala muta maranda, which led to several dead-ends for some time.

References :

The Butterflies of The Plain Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malaysian Nature Society.
Butterflies of West Malaysia and Singapore, WA Fleming, 2nd Edition, Longmans, 1983
Butterflies of Thailand, Pisuth Ek-Amnuay, 2nd Edition, 2012

Butterflies' Larval Host Plants #4
The Batoko Plum (Flacourtia inermis)

This 4th instalment of our Butterflies' Larval Host Plants series features Flacourtia inermis, a species formerly placed under Flacourtiaceae but has recently been moved to the Salicaceae (willow family) as a result of phylogenetic analyses using DNA sequence data.The species name refers to the fact that there are no spines on the trunk (unarmed).

Plant Biodata :
Family : Salicaceae
Genus : Flacourtia
Species : inermis
Country/Region of Origin : India to Malesia
English Common Names : Batoko Plum, lovi-lovi, lobi-lobi
Other Names : Rukam Masam, 紫梅, 罗比梅
Larval Host for Butterfly Species: Phalanta phalantha phalantha (Leopard), Cupha erymanthis lotis (Rustic).

Batoko Plum is native to the India and Malesia (a floristic region which includes the Malay Peninsula, Malay Archipelago, New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago) regions. In Singapore, it is commonly planted in parks/gardens and on roadside for shade and ornamental purposes. Elsewhere, Batoko Plum is usually cultivated as a fruit tree.

Two roadside Batoko Plum trees in Singapore.

Batoko Plum is a small to medium-sized tree that grows up 15m, with trunk up to 35cm in diameter. It features simple, alternate leaves. Each leaf is ovate-oblong to ovate-elliptic in shape, about 8-12cm long and has toothed margin. Young, emerging leaves are red in colour. As the leaves grow to its mature size, they decolorise to reddish green and finally to green. The upper leaf surface typically has a glossy appearance.

The reddish young leaves of the Batoko Plum.

Maturing leaves as the reddish coloration fades away.

A mix of leaves in all stages of development of the Batoko Plum.

Mature leaves of the Batoko Plum.

Flowers of the Batoko Plum are small, creamy yellow and occur in short racemes (simple, unbranched inflorescene) which are up to 5 cm long. These flowers are dioecious (having separate male and female flowers). The unisexual flowers attract insects to act as pollinators in the reproduction process.

Racemes of flowers of the Batoko Plum rising from the stem/branch.

Close up view of the flowers.

Fruits occur in bunches and are spherical and berry like, 2 to 2.5cm in diameter. They are initially green but turning pink to red when fully ripened. They can be eaten raw but are sour and acidic in taste. Typically they are turned into jams, preserves and syrups.

Young fruits of the Batoko Plum.

Maturing fruits of the Batoko Plum.

A bunch of ripened fruits of the Batoko Plum.

In Singapore, the Batoko Plum also serves as the larval host plant for two butterfly species: Leopard and Rustic. Both are members of the Nymphalidae family, Heliconiinae sub-family.

A Leopard butterfly.

A Rustic butterfly.

Eggs of both Leopard and Rustic are laid singly on the young shoots of the Batoko Plum. Their caterpillars feed on the young and maturing leaves, and not on the fully matured leaves.

An early instar Leopard caterpillar found on a young shoot of the Batoko Plum.

A 3rd instar Leopard caterpillar resting on a against young leaf of the Batoko Plum.

A 4th instar Leopard caterpillar on the move.

A final instar Leopard caterpillar observed in the Japanese Garden.

Typically, caterpillars of both the Leopard and Rustic butterflies choose to pupate on the underside of a leaf of the host plant.

A pupa of the Leopard found on the underside of a leaf in the western part of Singapore.

A close-up view of a pupa of the Leopard found on a roadside Batoko Plum tree.

Next time when you are out for a walk/jog in our parks, gardens, park connectors or along the road outside your house, check for the presence of the Batoko Plum. A sight of this plant usually implies the existence of a colony of Leopard butterflies in the vicinity.

References:

1001 Garden Plants in Singapore : Boo Chih Min, Kartini Omar-Hor and Ou-Yang Chow Lin, National Parks Board, 2nd Edition 2007.

Flacourtia inermis - Asianplant.net.

Chase, M. W., S. Zmarzty, M. D. Lledo, K. J. Wurdack, S. M. Swensen, & M. F. Fay. When in doubt, put it in Flacourtiaceae: a molecular phylogenetic analysis based on plastid rbcL DNA sequences. Kew Bulletin 57: 141-181, 2002

Flacourtia inermis, Wikipedia.

Text and Photos by Horace Tan.

Butterfly of the Month - October 2015
The Mottled Emigrant (Catopsilia pyranthe pyranthe)

A male Mottled Emigrant feeding on the flower of Bidens pilosa

The haze that enveloped much of Southeast Asia continued into the month of October 2015 and will probably go down on record as one of the worst man-made air pollution event for a long time. The prevailing south-westerly and south-easterly winds continued to blow the smoke from Indonesia's forest-burning activities towards Singapore, Malaysia, southern Thailand and even as far as the Philippines!

Regional Haze map showing the extend of the haze covering Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and the prevailing winds

It is quite amazing that Indonesian government continues to sit back whilst their own people suffer PSI conditions reaching almost 3,000! At that number, keeping count of whatever the PSI number is, becomes totally meaningless and irrelevant. It is hoped that ASEAN will continue to put pressure on the Indonesian government to take positive action to stop this environmental carnage. Otherwise it will become a yearly affair for all its neighbours - at least until the government allows the perpetrators to burn down all its forests until there is nothing left to burn.

At the moment, there is nothing else any other neighbouring country can do, but offer assistance, grumble, complain, threaten and so on, without any resolution. The only answer to end this haze will be when the Northeast monsoons puts out the fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. A weak government cannot do anything more than to chide its neighbours for complaining about the haze.

Over in little Singapore, it is heartening to know that there are more and more voices regarding animal welfare concerns. A fisherman was videoed baiting a hook which snared an otter. In the video clip, the squeals of distress (and probably pain) from the hooked otter made watching the whole thing even more heart-wrenching. But the amount of criticism in social media prompted the government agencies and even the police to eventually locate the fisherman. The case is still pending.

This month, we feature a common butterfly species in Singapore, the Mottled Emigrant (Catopsilia pyranthe pyranthe). The Mottled Emigrant is one of three species of the genus Catopsilia found in Malaysia and Singapore. Their common name "Emigrant" suggests that these butterflies indulge in migratory tendencies. Indeed, over the years of butterfly watching here in Singapore, at least one of the species, the Lemon Emigrant (Catopsilia pomona pomona), has been seen "migrating" in numbers across the island on one occasion.

A male Mottled Emigrant shot in flight with its wings opened, whilst courting a female

The Mottled Emigrant is greenish-white in colour. On the upperside, the forewing has a thin black apical border in the male, which is much broader in the female. There is also a hint of a black marginal border on the hindwing in the female. Both sexes have a prominent black cell end spot on the upperside of the forewing.

A mating pair of Mottled Emigrants. Left - female, right - male

The underside of the butterfly features a series of brown transverse striations, giving the butterfly a "mottled" appearance. The underside of the closely-related Lemon Emigrant is usually clean and without this mottling. However, in some individuals of the Mottled Emigrant, this mottling is so indistinct as to cause mis-identification of this species, particularly in the field.

A close-up of the mottled markings on the underside of the wings of a Mottled Emigrant

The Mottled Emigrant is a fast-flying butterfly, often on the wing on bright sunny days, flying erratically at high speed. It is skittish, and difficult to photograph, except with it stops to feed at flowering plants, or when it is resting in the shade. It is seldom encountered with its wings opened flat.

The species does not appear to puddle at moist sandy streambanks and forest footpaths (thus far no known record in Singapore). Unlike many Pieridae, which tend to puddle, the Mottled Emigrant is more often encountered feeding on flowers in urban and sub-urban parks and gardens. The caterpillar of the Mottled Emigrant feeds mainly on its preferred host plant, the Seven Golden Candlesticks (Senna alata), which has been cultivated in many parks and natureways as a butterfly-attracting plant.

In photographs, the Mottled Emigrant may look pale greenish white to light lime green, depending on the condition of the butterfly, its surroundings, fill-flash, ambient lighting and contrast settings on the camera. Hence in the field, it may sometimes be confused with the various forms of its cousin, the Lemon Emigrant. The key distinguishing characteristic are the mottled markings on the underside of the wings.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Khew SK, Koh CH, Loke PF, Bobby Mun, Tai LA, Benedict Tay and Mark Wong.

Two Skippers Added to the Singapore Checklist
Featuring the Malayan Swift and Bengal Swift

The identification of some Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae from field shots is often challenging due to the very similar physical features of several species. This is made even more difficult due to the wide variation of these features amongst individuals and between different sexes.

In museum and scientific collections, it is much easier to identify and differentiate between species as comparisons amongst a number of specimens can be done systematically. Where available, male specimens can be dissected and their genitalia compared with a database of figures from reference resources. In recent times, the use of DNA sequencing can help advance the identification of specimens with greater accuracy.

However, positive identification of field photographed individuals is often a tricky business, because either the upperside or underside of an individual may not be available. Furthermore, if the butterfly photographed is a worn or tattered individual, its identification may prove almost impossible.

This is where the early stages of a butterfly can add another dimension to the accurate indentification of the species concerned. Over the years, our early stages expert, Horace Tan, has had many opportunities to breed and document the egg, caterpillar and pupa stages of a butterfly, and the adult morphology compared with reference literature.

After much scrutiny and discussion with our Malaysian expert Dr TL Seow, we have narrowed down the identification of two more species of Hesperiidae. The first is a species from the genus Caltoris. These "Swifts" are largely found in heavily-shaded forests in Singapore, and thus far, the Full Stop Swift (Caltoris cormasa), is the only species that has been identified with certainty. A recent find, is another species, Caltoris malaya (Malayan Swift).

Caterpillar and pupa of the Malayan Swift bred on Bambusae sp

The Malayan Swift is described as being dark brown with the usual spotting on the forewing. A key distinguishing factor is the absence of the cell spots on the forewing. On the underside, the male is ferruginuous (or dark rusty) brown, whilst the female is ochreous (or reddish-orange) brown.

Several individuals were bred, and the specimens were examined and compared. The consistent absence of the forewing cell spots narrowed down the idenfication of the species to Caltoris malaya a species that is documented as extant in Singapore by the early authors. We record this re-discovery of the Malayan Swift (Caltoris malaya) as species #323 in the Singapore Checklist.

The next species, also a re-discovery, is the Bengal Swift (Pelopidas agna agna). This species is very similar to the more common extant species found in Singapore, the Small Branded Swift (Pelopidas mathias mathias). Differentiation between the two via field shots can be a hit-and-miss affair. However, Dr TL Seow has added his other observations to help narrow down the identification between these two species.

A female Bengal Swift perches on a blade of grass

Pelopidas mathias mathias

Male: FW line through cell spots cut brand variably at lower third.
FW spots large especially 2 and 3. Spot 2 irregularly rectangular.
Female: Line through cell spots generally pass close spot 1b but variable and unreliable.
HW ground colour uneven, marginal areas often paler with dark shading/smudges around the spots.
Underside is greyish-ochreous

Pelopidas agna agna

Male: Line through cell spots only touches lower end of brand.
Forewing spots often very small and spot 2 very narrow.
Female : Line through cell spots usually far from spot 1b but unreliable.
Underside ground colour is even and without obvious dark shading/smudges around the spots.
Underside is ochreous without a grey tinge.

Breeding of several individuals and comparison with the adult males and females strongly suggest the presence of the Bengal Swift (Pelopidas agna agna) in Singapore. However, another related species, Pelopidas lyelli which also bear a strong resemblance to the Bengal Swift, may also create some confusion. This Australian species should be looked for in Singapore where it is not impossible that it reached the shores of Singapore like the Yellow Palm Dart.

Caterpillar of the Bengal Swift

Given the comparisons and specimens from breeding documentation, we record the Bengal Swift (Pelopidas agna agna) as species #324 as a re-discovery for Singapore. Further observations will continue as to whether there are other Pelopidas species exist in Singapore.

It is likely that we will continue to discover other Hesperiidae from the lookalikes via their early stages as and when the opportunities arise. Henceforth from 2015, all bred and collected material will be submitted to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum for DNA sampling and the voucher specimens documented for future comparisons when more material are available.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Horace Tan and Khew SK

Special thanks to Horace Tan for his patience and effort in documenting the early stages of these Skipper species and to Dr TL Seow for his persistence in scrutinising the voucher specimens and coming out with additional consistent ID features for the species concerned .

References :

The Butterflies of The Plain Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malaysian Nature Society.
Butterflies of West Malaysia and Singapore, WA Fleming, 2nd Edition, Longmans, 1983
Butterflies of Thailand, Pisuth Ek-Amnuay, 2nd Edition, 2012

Life History of the Tree Yellow (Gandaca harina distanti)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Gandaca Moore, 1906
Species: harina Horsfield, 1819
Subspecies: distanti Fruhstorfer, 1910
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 30-45mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plants: Ventilago maingayi (Rhamnaceae), Ventilago malaccensis (Rhamnaceae).

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:

Tree Yellow has its vein 7 on the hindwing originating from well before the end of the cell. In contrast, Grass Yellow species has their rises at or just before the cell-end. On the upperside, the wings are pale lemon-yellow with a narrow black apical border on the forewing. In the female, this black border has a dentate projection along vein 4. On the underside, the wings are pale lemon-yellow without any markings.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:

The Tree Yellow is common in Singapore and can be found at multiple locations within the nature reserves. They regularly visit flowers for nectar and puddle on wet grounds for minerals.

Early Stages:

In Singapore, two plants in the nature reserves, Ventilago maingayi and Ventilago malaccensis, have been identified as larval hosts for Tree Yellow. The caterpillars feed on young leaves of the host plants. The caterpillars typically rest on the upperside of a leaf which has its leaf margin curled inwards to form a partial leaf shelter for the caterpillars.

Local host plant #1: Ventilago maingayi.

Local host plant #2: Ventilago malaccensis.

A mating pair of the Tree Yellow.

The eggs of the Tree Yellow are laid singly on a young shoot of of the host plant. The spindle shaped egg is laid standing at one end with a length of about 1.4-1.5mm. It is whitish in color and has indistinct shallow vertical ridges. The micropylar sits at the tip of the standing egg.

A mother Tree Yellow laying an egg on a young leaf of Ventilago maingayi.

An egg of the Tree Yellow on the young shoot of Ventilago maingayi.

An egg of the Tree Yellow.

The eggs take about 3-3.5 days to hatch. Each newly hatched caterpillar has a length of about 2mm and has a pale whitish head capsule. It has a cylindrical and pale whitish body covered with dorso-lateral and lateral rows of tubercles running lengthwise. As is the case for Eurema spp., each tubercle has a seta emerging from the middle of it with the tip of the seta bearing a droplet-like structure. These droplet-bearing setae is a feature seen in all five instars of the larval phase.

Two views of a newly hatched caterpillars of the Tree Yellow, length 2mm.

After hatching, the young caterpillar does not seem to follow the common habit of eating the empty egg shell for its first meal, instead it moves away to feed on the leaf lamina. The body colour turns pale yellowish brown as growth progresses. The body length reaches about 4mm in about 2 days before the moult to the 2nd instar.

Two view of a 1st instar caterpillar, length 2.5mm.

The body of the 2nd instar caterpillar is pale whitish to yellowish with a greenish tinge. Its head capsule is similarly coloured. This instar lasts about 2 days with the body length reaching about 7mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this instar, length 3.5mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, length: 5mm

The 3rd instar caterpillar resembles the 2nd instar caterpillar closely with the body bearing a stronger greenish tinge than in the 2nd instar. This instar takes about 2 days to complete with body length reaching about 9-10mm.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, length: 8.8mm.

Two views of late 3rd instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 9.5mm.

A 3rd instar caterpillar of the Tree Yellow found in the central catchment reserve.

The body of the 4th instar caterpillar is little changed in appearance from its previous instars, with its body coloration more whitish overall. This penultimate instar takes about 2-3 days to complete with body length reaching about 16-17mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 4th instar caterpillar.

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

Two views of a late 4th instar caterpillar, dormant prior to its moult, length: 16mm.

A 4th instar caterpillar of the Tree Yellow found in the central catchment reserve.

The 5th and final instar does not bring along any drastic change in appearance in both the body and head capsule. Overall the caterpillar is more yellowish green than in the previous instars. The 5th instar lasts about 3-4 days, and the body length reaches up to 24-25mm.

A newly moulted 5th instar caterpillar of the Tree Yellow.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 19mm.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, late in this instar, length: 24.5mm.

Two views of a late 5th instar caterpillar, ceased feeding and ready to become a pre-pupa.

On the last day of the 5th instar, the body of the caterpillar shortens and the body colour changes to pale yellowish jade green. It ceases feeding and comes to a halt on the underside of a leaf or a stem of the host plant. Here the caterpillar spins a silk pad and a silk girdle. With its posterior end secured to the silk pad via claspers, and the body suspended at the mid-section with the girdle, the caterpillar soon becomes immobile in this pre-pupatory pose.

The sad ending of a final instar caterpillar of the Tree Yellow. Here the parasitoid larvae had emerged from the caterpillar and pupated, leaving the caterpillar to die hours later.

A late 5th instar caterpillar of the Tree Yellow found in the central catchment reserve.

A pre-pupatory larva of the Tree Yellow.

Pupation takes place about 0.5-1 day later. The pupa secures itself with the same silk girdle as in the pre-pupal stage, but with the cremaster replacing claspers in attaching the posterior end to the silk pad, It has a pointed cephalic horn) and a slightly keeled wing pad, and its body is free of any spots/markings. The body colour is pale green throughout with the abdomen in paler green. Length of pupae: 17-19.5mm..

Two views of a pupa of the Tree Yellow.

Two views of a mature pupa of the Tree Yellow.

After about 4 days of development, the pupal skin turns translucent as the development within the pupal case comes to an end. The yellow coloration and back borders on the forewing upperside are now discernible. The following day, the adult butterfly emerges from the pupal case.

A newly eclosed Tree Yellow clinging onto its empty 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, Lemon Tea YK, Nelson Ong, Mark Wong, Loke PF, Simon Sng, Frederick Ho, Sunny Chir and Horace Tan

Butterflies of Singapore 2nd Edition
An Update to the Field Guide : 2015

Group photos of ButterflyCircle members with Minister Tan Chuan Jin

It has already been five years since I first launched the book "A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore" back on 10 Oct 2010. With the help from members of ButterflyCircle, we were able to compile a comprehensive field guide for butterfly enthusiasts and nature lovers alike. Five years down the road, further reviews of the species in the 1st Edition and additional species spotted in Singapore made it necessary to collate an update to the Field Guide.

Charity beneficiaries of the Butterflies of Singapore 2nd Edition

It couldn't have been a more appropriate year in 2015, Singapore's 50th birthday since Independence, to launch the updated 2nd edition as a gift to Singapore. As with the original book, this sequel was generously sponsored by Ms Ho Ching, Executive Director and CEO of Temasek Holdings. A copy of the book will be donated free-of-charge to all schools in Singapore, polytechnics, universities, public libraries and other government institutions.

Sample pages from the 2nd Edition of Butterflies of Singapore

The intention is to make available a book on Singapore's biodiversity and natural heritage to as many Singaporeans as possible, with the hope that our present and future generations will be motivated to treasure, love and conserve our flora and fauna. Given our very limited land, Singapore has done admirably well in the conservation of our biodiversity.

The 2nd Edition now has an index section for easier search

And so the work started in earnest in early 2015, sorting out photos, re-doing the write ups, correcting errors and typos, changing some of the details like wingspan to forewing length, creating an index to replace the checklist and updating taxonomic information and names where latest information were available. Some of these changes came from feedback from users of the book and reviews by other authors.

Work in progress

Due to my work commitments, much of the effort in the updating of this 2nd edition was done in my free time, late into the nights and on weekends. As the progress speeded up, our layout artist from IOP Communications, Cressindie, had to do overtime work in the evenings and on weekends. The initial progress took quite a bit of time, as there were many changes and amendments upon amendments made to many pages.

The machine that printed the book

I had the fortune of having two very sharp-eyed ladies to help me with the proof-reading this time around. Their amazing ability to pick out the smallest of details helped eliminate quite a number of errors that were not even noticed earlier. So a very big thank you to Mei Hwang and Yun Lim! Another source of help came from Dr Seow TL whose wealth of experience and detailed eye for butterfly identifications also made the book a lot more accurate and complete this time around.

Work in progress, colour vetting and quality control

As the days and weeks flew past, my capable "project manager" Alicia Tan of IOP made sure that every thing was on track. She helped in the QC of the book and advice in the technical details of printing the book. Kudos also to Sherman Chia of NPE Print Communications Pte Ltd (also the same printers for the original book) for delivering everything on time.

My capable colleagues who handled all the artwork, logistics, planning and MC'ing at the launch

Those who attended the launch of the book on 8 Nov may not have realised the organisation of the logistics and planning behind the scenes. My sincere appreciation goes to my two colleagues, CJ and Xueyan who volunteered to help with the launch collaterals, logistics, organising the reception and MC'ing on the day of the book launch.

Registration desk and welcoming the guests

Special thanks also to ButterflyCircle members and Seletar CC members who turned up in force to handle the registration, ushering, photography and keeping the event running smoothly. A word of appreciation to the caterer, Orange Clove Catering, and their service staff for doing a good job of serving the guests at the launch and for their yummy food.

Cheng Khim with her butterfly-themed balloons to add more colour to the launch

The weather on Sunday 8 Nov was just perfect. Our day started early as we headed for the Function Hall at the Singapore Botanic Gardens where the launch was to be held. This was the same venue where the first book was launched, and there were many fond memories of the place. Our helpers were up early too, and everyone was ready to go before the guests arrived.

Minister Tan arriving, and chatting with the VIPs

Our Guest of Honour, Minister Tan Chuan Jin, Minister for Social and Family Development, was his characteristic down-to-earth self when he arrived a lot earlier than expected. Being one of our most approachable Ministers, he chose to mingle with the crowd rather than stay cooped up in the VIP holding room. My sponsor, Ms Ho Ching also arrived early, and chatted with friends and guests.

Minister Tan delivering his speech and the crowd at the launch

The event progressed smoothly and as a small gesture to minimise paper usage, all our speeches were read off digital devices minus any printouts. Minister Tan was his casual self and spoke eloquently from the heart. For this 2nd Edition, special charity hardcover copies were printed and donated to three organisations - ACRES, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and Garden City Fund. These special copies will be sold at a charity price of S$200 at a forthcoming charity event to raise funds for these organisations which focus on animal welfare, nature education and research, and the greening of Singapore.

Minister Tan lifts a butterfly net to free the 2nd Edition of the Butterflies of Singapore, receiving the first copy of the book, and charity recipients with sponsor Ms Ho Ching

Minister Tan launched the 2nd Edition of the Butterflies of Singapore by lifting a butterfly net off the books to "release" the butterflies. Ms Ho Ching did the honours to present the token copies of the charity edition to Prof Leo Tan (GCF), Prof Peter Ng (LKCNHM) and our newly-minted Member of Parliament Louis Ng (ACRES).

End of the launch ceremony

The reception after the launch was a good time for networking and catching up with old friends and making new ones. I was also touched by the number of overseas guests who took the trouble to attend the book launch - my bosses and colleagues from Beijing, Dr and Mrs Kirton from KL, Mr and Mrs Joseph Goh from Penang Butterfly Farm (now called Entopia), my friend Dato Chang of Ecoworld, ButterflyCircle members Antonio and his family, and LC Goh who flew in from KL just for a few hours before flying back home!

Celebrity mugshots!

With LC Goh and Dr Laurence G Kirton

With prominent Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng and family

With CEO/Centre for Livable Cities Khoo Teng Chye and Mrs Khoo

And then my friends from the nature circles, my colleagues and close friends made up the rest of the crowd. A big thank you to all of you for taking your Sunday morning off to be with me. I am indeed humbled by your presence at my book launch.

The new additions to the 2nd Edition of Butterflies of Singapore

The 2nd edition features a number of better photographs to replace the photos of the first addition, as well as 29 totally new species that have been observed over the past 60 months after 2010. Some species are new discoveries and have continued to stay in Singapore, whilst some are seasonal migrants/vagrants. A small number of species, particularly from the Hesperiidae and Lycaenidae may have been extant in Singapore all this while, but their positive IDs were only recently validated through close research via early stages (by Horace Tan) and having voucher specimens to scrutinise.

A major revision of the taxonomic classification was also done, with reference made to Dr Kirton's Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand launched last year. Amongst the revisions are :

Amalgamation of all the species from the Subfamily Morphinae into the Subfamily Satyrinae.
Featuring a new species found from the Subfamily Biblidinae
Reorganising the Subfamily Lycaeninae, and raising the tribes that were formerly lumped under the Lycaeninae to full Subfamily status. These reinstated subfamilies are Aphnaeinae, Polyommatinae and Theclinae. There is now no longer any representative of the Subfamily Lycaeninae in Singapore.
Resulting sequence of genera and species of the various Subfamilies are also reorganised according to Dr Kirton's book.

All species featured have their wing dimension data now recorded as forewing length. This was a suggestion by Dr Albert Orr in his review of the book, and this convention has been taken as the preferred norm in most recent literature on Lepidoptera. An index has now been included at the back of the book. This was a result of many user feedback that an index would be more useful than a checklist when looking for specific species. The index is organised under three sections of Butterfly Common Name, Butterfly Scientific Name and Plant Name.

As with books of this nature, there is always a likelihood of some errors, despite the huge effort made to be as accurate and error-free as possible. In the event that there are any inadvertent errors found, I humbly apologise for these oversights.

And so this new book from our group, ButterflyCircle and friends, is added to our collection, making it our 3rd book since 2010. We now look forward to further projects to help in nature conservation and teaching our future generations to care and nurture our biodiversity and conserve nature on our little red dot of only 720 sq km.

Duatau Bay, the friendly cat who stole the show at the launch

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Ray Chua, Loke PF, Bobby Mun, Tan Ke Yang and numerous other photographers using their smartphones!

Special Thanks to NParks Board and Singapore Botanic Gardens for the use of the Function Hall and Function Room for the Launch of the 2nd Edition of the Butterflies of Singapore

Life History of the Bengal Swift (Pelopidas agna agna)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Pelopidas Walker, 1870
Species: agna Wallace, 1866
Sub-Species: agna Wallace, 1866
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 32-36mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plant:Brachiaria mutica (Poaceae, common names: Para Grass, Buffalo Grass, Dutch Grass, Giant couch, Scotch Grass).

The upperside view of a male Bengal Swift.

A close-up view of the forewing upperside of a male Bengal Swift. The lower cell spot is minuscule in this specimen.

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:

On the upperside, the wings are brown. There are white post-discal hyaline spots in spaces 2-4, 6-8 and two cell spots in the forewing. The male has a narrow oblique brand in the forewing running from the spot in space 2 towards the dorsum (the brand is angled in such a way that a line drawn from and through the two cell spots would touch the brand at its lower end). The female has additional white spots in spaces 1b, consisting of one minute upper spot and one larger lower spot. The line drawn the cell spots would typically pass far from the spot in space 1b. On the underside, the wings are ochreous without a greyish tinge. The forewing have the same spots as per the upperside, and the hindwing has a cell spot and a series of post-discal spots in spaces 2 to 5.

A male Bengal Swift.

The upperside view of a female Bengal Swift, showing the additional post-discal spots in space 1b.

The underside view of the same female Bengal Swift in the above picture.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:

The Bengal Swift is moderately common in Singapore. Easily confused with the similar-looking Small Branded Swift, the adults have been sighted at multiple locations including grassy wastelands, urban parks and gardens across the island. The adults fly with a swift, strong and darting flight.

Early Stages:

The Bengal Swift has so far been bred on just one grass species locally, Brachiaria mutica, a moderately common grass species found in grassy wastelands. The caterpillars feed on leaves of the host plant, and live in shelters formed by joining edges of a grass blade together.

Local host plant: Brachiaria mutica.

The eggs are laid singly on the upperside of a grass blade of the host plant. Each dome-shaped egg is whitish with a basal diameter of about 1mm.

Two views of an egg of the Bengal Swift.

Two views of a maturing egg, with the black head capsule visible through the egg shell.

Two views of a mature egg, with the head capsule visible through hole in the egg shell.

It takes about 3.5-4 days for the egg to hatch. The young caterpillar eats just enough of the shell to emerge, and has a length of about 2.5mm. Its cylindrical body is pale yellowish with a tuff of moderately long setae at the posterior end. The head capsule is black and right behind it a black collar mark is present on the prothorax. The newly hatched nibbles away most of the egg shell remnant before proceeding to construct its first leaf shelter.

The newly hatched caterpillar eating its own egg shell.

The newly hatched caterpillar resting near the nearly-eaten egg shell.

The body turns yellowish green after the caterpillar has started feeding on the grass blade. By the time the caterpillar lies dormant for its moult to the 2nd instar, its length has reached 5-5.5mm. The 1st instar takes about 3-3.5 days to complete.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, length:4.2mm.

The 2nd instar caterpillar still has a yellowish green body, and the head capsule is still black. The black collar mark on the prothorax has faded to just to hint of its presence. Faint whitish doro-lateral and lateral bands are observable. This instar lasts about 3 days with the body length reaching about 9mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 5mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, length: 7mm.

The 3nd instar caterpillar has a dark brown to black head capsule with two lateral pale yellowish brown bands. On the body, the dorso-lateral and lateral bands are more prominent with a whitish to yellowish coloration. There is no longer any trace of the black collar mark on the prothorax. This instar lasts about 2-3 days with the body length reaching about 14mm.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 8.8mm.

A 3rd instar caterpillar, length: 12mm.

The 4th instar caterpillar has a head capsule which is whitish in ground colour but reddish brown to black along the periphery and various sulci. Two reddish brown stripes rise from the adfrontal area. This penultimate instar lasts about 3-4 days with the body length reaching up to 21-23.5mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 14mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 21mm.

The 5th instar caterpillar features a head capsule which is pale yellowish to pale green in ground colour. The periphery is marked with a broad reddish band on each side of the head capsule. Each peripheral band is flanked with whitish bands on both sides. The anal plate is unmarked as in the all previous instars. This final instar takes about 5-6 days to complete with the body length reaching 40-43mm.

Two views of a newly moulted 5th instar caterpillar.

Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, length: 34mm.

Towards the end of 5th instar, the body of the caterpillar shortens in length and body colour assumes a uniform shade of pale lime green. It seeks out a spot on a leaf blade where it constructs a shallow but half-open shelter with silk threads at both ends. The body excretes a moderate amount of white waxy material at this stage. Within the shelter, a silk girdle and a silk pad are then spun. Once the caterpillar attaches its claspers to the silk pad, it enters the dormant prepupatory phase which lasts about one day.

Two views of a pre-pupa of the Bengal Swift. with the lower one being later in this phase.

The pupa secures itself with the silk girdle and with its cremaster attached to the silk pad. It has a short thorax, a rather long abdomen and a pointed rostrum. The body is deep lime green in the thorax and wing case but yellowish green in the abdomen. Narrow, whitish, dorso-lateral and lateral bands run lengthwise on the abdomen. Length of pupae: 29-30mm.

Two views of a pupa of the Bengal Swift.

After 7 days, the pupa becomes mostly black in color in the wing pads and in the body segments. Eclosion takes place the next day.

Two views of a mature pupa of the Bengal Swift.

A newly eclosed Bengal Swift.

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, 2nd Edition, 2015.

Text by Horace Tan, Photos by Bendecit Tay, PF Loke and Horace Tan

Butterfly of the Month - November 2015
The Yellow Banded Awl (Hasora schoenherr chuza)

A Yellow Banded Awl in its typical upside-down pose on the underside of a leaf

Blue skies are back in Singapore! The prevailing winds have changed to the north-east monsoon winds, bringing with them the end-of-year wet season. The wet weather appears to have effectively extinguished the forest fires in Indonesia and with it, the haze is gone. It was a joy to see blue skies again, after so many weeks of miserable grey and hazy environment.

We often take our environment for granted, and the annual scourge of the haze from the massive land-clearing activities by just razing everything to the ground is over for now. It leaves us wondering how effective the Indonesian government will be, come next year during the dry season, and when illegal land-clearing by burning starts again. But until then, we welcome our clear air again (and it has nothing to do with the Indonesian government, though they claim that they "provide" the clean air) and the cooler weather at the end of the year.

It was an exciting month for ButterflyCircle, as we launched our 3rd book - only possible with the collective effort of many members of the group. The 2nd Edition of the Butterflies of Singapore is now out, and hopefully the updated book will benefit more nature lovers who indulge in butterfly watching in Singapore. We are now preparing the material for our next book project, but that will be a subject for another time.

A Yellow Banded Awl puddling at damp gravel along a jungle footpath

On the global scene, the disturbing ISIS extremism reared its ugly head in the city of Paris, where many innocent victims lost their life. This is not Islamic nor does it have anything to do with any religion! No religion teaches its subjects to take innocent lives in its name. This is the work of madmen and people who have lost their souls, if they even had a soul in the first place. Now they are planning on taking everyone else. Let's hope that the superpowers will eliminate this group of heartless killers to make our world a safer place to live in.

In my workplace, our "journey to the west" is complete, and about a 1,000 of us are now settled in to our new home at Westgate Tower. The logistics of moving such a big office was initially mind-boggling. The travelling time for more than half of our staff increased by quite a bit, but it is an adjustment out of our comfort zone that everyone took in their stride. The Jurong East hub of malls and facilities is quite amazing, and we look forward to the future with renewed inspiration.

The eleventh month of 2015 is almost over, and we feature a butterfly species from the family Hesperiidae. Skippers as we call them, are sometimes mistaken for moths due to their large eyes, fat and hairy bodies and the way they fly. However, they are usually classified as butterflies rather than moths. Many species are crepuscular and are on the wing at dawn and the early hours of the morning, and at dusk.

A Yellow Banded Awl puddling on a damp red brick wall

This month's feature butterfly is the Yellow Banded Awl (Hasora schoenherr chuza). This species is considered rare in Singapore, and is usually found in shaded forests in the nature reserves. It is one of five species of "Awls" from the genus Hasora found in Singapore. None of them can be considered common but they are seen single from time to time, and when there are flowering plants in bloom.

Upperside shot of a Yellow Banded Awl showing its forewing spots and hindwing yellow band

The Yellow Banded Awl is a plain dark brown on the upperside with four whitish sub-apical spots and several hyaline pale yellow spots conjoined to form an irregular band on the forewing. The hindwing features a broad yellow discal band and yellowish cilia . The underside is similarly marked but the wing base is a light golden brown. The apical area has a purplish sheen that is more prominent in some individuals, and also depending on the illumination in a side light.

The butterfly is regularly seen in the vicinity of its caterpillar host plants, Spatholobus ridleyi and Kunstleria ridleyi, both vines that grow mainly in Singapore's forested nature reserves. The Yellow Banded Awl flies rapidly, like most skippers, and is sometimes sensitive to the photographer's flash.

A Yellow Banded Awl in its typical pose under a leaf

Preferring the shaded understorey of the forested nature reserves, the butterfly has a habit of flying around speedily and then settling on the underside of a leaf to conceal itself. When disturbed, it takes off rapidly and then takes cover under another leaf, settling with its wings folded upright. There are also occasions where the Yellow Banded Awl is observed to puddle on bird droppings and damp patches on tree trunks and walls of buildings.

5th instar caterpillar of the Yellow Banded Awl

The caterpillar of the Yellow Banded Awl, especially the late instars, is quite spectacular and is almost as pretty as the butterfly itself! Its bright red head is quite attractive and unique.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Chng CK, Khew SK, Loke PF, Mei Hwang, Nelson Ong and Horace Tan

Butterflies' Larval Host Plants #5
Turn-in-the-Wind (Mallotus paniculatus)

This 5th instalment of our Butterflies' Larval Host Plants series features Turn-in-the-wind (Mallotus paniculatus), a species in Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) which is a large family of flowering plants with about 7,500 species. The members take on a variety of growth forms (trees, shrub, herb) with some having considerable economic significance (for examples, the Rubber Tree, Cassava and Castor Oil Plant). Turn-in-the-wind is a member which assumes the shrub and tree form. The name "paniculatus" refers to the branched state of the inflorescence.

Turn-in-the-wind is native to East Asia, Southeast Asia to North Australia. In Singapore, it is a common plant which can be found in multiple habitats including secondary forest reserve, wastelands. hill parks and gardens. Turn-in-the-wind proves to be a useful plant to human in various parts of the world. For examples, the root and leaves have medicinal uses while the bark and wood have been used in construction, making strings, matches, packing cases and paper pulp.

Plant Biodata :
Family : Euphorbiaceae
Genus : Mallotus
Species : paniculatus
Synonyms : Mallotus conchinchinensis, Croton appendiculatus
Country/Region of Origin : East Asia, Southeast Asia to North Australia
English Common Names : Panicled Mallotus, Turn-in-the-wind
Other Local Namezs : Balek angin, 白楸 , 白匏子
Larval Host for Butterfly Species: Megisba malaya sikkima (Malayan), Semanga superba deliciosa, Rapala pheretima sequeira (Copper Flash), Rapala dieneces dieneces (Scarlet Flash), Allotinus unicolor unicolor (Lesser Darkwing), Logania marmorata damis (Pale Mottle), Mooreana trichoneura trichoneura (Yellow Flat).

Left: A young plant of Turn-in-the-wind, about 1m tall. Right: A small tree form of the Turn-in-the-wind, about 3m tall.

Turn-in-the-wind is an evergreen plant which appears in shrub to small tree form up to 15m tall. The leaves are simple and tripli-veined (where the lowest pair of veinlets are much more conspicuous than others above them) and are arranged in alternate to apically subopposite manner. The petioles are greenish tawny and rather long. The young leaves are initially reddish brown.

The reddish brown young leaves.

Leaves of the Turn-in-the-wind, showing the leaf arrangement and long petioles.

Mature leaves are yellowish green to green on the upperside, whitish on the underside, and up to 15cm long. The common name "Turn-in-the-wind" comes from the fact that the long and slender petioles cause the leaves to twist even in slight breeze, showing the contrasting and whitish underside. Leaf shapes are variable with leaf margin entire to irregularly dentate, sometimes 2-lobed.

Left: leaf upperside; Right: leaf underside. Note the distinct contrast in colour between the two sides.

Leaves of the Turn-in-the-wind, showing variable leaf shapes.

There are two conspicuous nectary glands at leaf base on the upperside. The nectary fluid from these glands is a food source for various insects visiting or resident on the plant.

Ants attracted to the nectary glands at leaf base.

A final instar caterpillar of the Lesser Darkwing (Allotinus unicolor) enjoying the nectary fluid from the leaf glands.

Turn-in-the-wind is usually dioecious (having separate male and female plants), but occasionally monoecious forms do occur. Flowers are placed in panicles (much-branched inflorescence) which occur either terminally or axillary. Staminate (male) inflorescences are up to 45cm long with side branches to 28cm long. Each branch has up to 70 nodes, each of which bearing 3 to 7 flowers. The male flowers are small with pale yellow sepals and yellow anthers. Pistillate (female) inflorescences are up to 30cm long and up to 75 nodes per branch. The female flowers are 3-4mm in diameter and have yellow style and yellow stigma.

A male inflorescence of the Turn-in-the-wind, still at the flower-bud stage.

Left: A male inflorescence with flowers in bloom. Right: Close up view of an individual male flower among flower buds on the same branch.

Part of a female inflorescence of the Turn-in-the-wind.

Close-up views of individual flowers. Left: male; Right: female.

The 3-lobed fruits are greenish tawny and about 7mm in diameter. Each bears several hairy spines which are up to 7mm long. When ripened, the fruits split open to reveal small, globose seeds which are smooth and black.

A fruiting tree of the Tunr-in-the-wind at Mount Faber Park. The massive occurrence of the fruiting inflorescences turns the tree brownish in appearance.

A fruiting inflorescence.

Developing fruits.

Fully developed fruits.

Ripened fruits split open to reveal small, black seeds.

In Singapore, Turn-in-the-wind also serves as the larval host plant for seven butterfly species: Megisba malaya sikkima (Malayan), Semanga superba deliciosa, Rapala pheretima sequeira (Copper Flash), Rapala dieneces dieneces (Scarlet Flash), Allotinus unicolor unicolor (Lesser Darkwing), Logania marmorata damis (Pale Mottle), and Mooreana trichoneura trichoneura (Yellow Flat). The first six are lycaenid species, while the last one is a member of Hesperiidae (subfmaily: Pyrginae).

The Malayan.

Semanga superba deliciosa

Yelow Flat.

Eggs of the Malayan are typically laid among flower buds, whereas those for Semanga superba deliciosa, Copper Flash and Scarlet Flash are laid on young shoots. The Lesser Darkwing and the Pale Mottle are carnivorous species which feed on tree hoppers living on young shoots and inflorescences of the Turn-in-the-wind. Their eggs are typically laid at these sites and sometimes even directly onto the body of these scale insects. In contrast, the eggs of the Yellow Flat are laid on the upper surface of mature leaves, often concealed in a tuff of hair.

A female Malayan laying an egg among the female flower buds of the Turn-in-the-wind.

Close-up view of an egg of the Malayan laid between male flower buds of the Turn-in-the-wind.

Eggs of Semanga superba deliciosa laids on the petiole base in a young shoot.

Eggs of the Yellow Flat on the leaf upper surface.

Caterpillars of the Malayan feed on flower buds and flowers on the flower/fruit inflorescences while those of Semanga superba deliciosa and two Rapala spp. feed on young leaves and shoots. The two carnivorous spp. do not consume any plant parts but attack and feed on tree hoppers living on young shoots and inflorescences. The caterpillars of the Yellow Flat feed on leaf blades as well but live in a folded-up leaf shelters on a chosen leaf. All six lycaenid species have nectary glands which attract ants to attend to them.

A Malayan caterpillar feeding on male flower buds.

Another Malayan caterpillar feeding on male flower buds.

A Semanga superba deliciosa caterpillar being attended by several ants on the underside of a leaf.

A Scarlet Flash caterpillar being attended by several ants on the stem of a young shoot.

A Copper Flash caterpillar imbibing nectory fluid while being attended by a weaver ant.

Leaf shelters of early star caterpillars of the Yellow Flat.

Leaf shelter of a final instar caterpillar of the Yellow Flat.

A Lesser Darkwing caterpillar found on a fruiting inflorescense.

A Lesser Darkwing caterpillar eating a tree hopper.

Caterpillars of the Malayan typically choose to pupate near its feeding site on the inflorescence. Those of other five lycaenid species, ie. Semanga, two flashes and two carnivorous species, typically choose to pupate on the leaf surface, usually on the underside. The Yellow Flat, being a skipper species, pupates within the final leaf shelter utilized.

A pupa of the Malayan found among the flower buds of the Turn-in-the-wind.

Two views of a pupa of the Yellow Flat within a leaf shelter on a leaf of the Turn-in-the-wind.

With so many butterfly species utilizing Turn-in-the-wind as larval host, this plant is always a worthwhile target to check out whenever you encounter one during a walk in parks and the nature reserve. If luck is on you side, you might even find early stages of other butterfly species present, thus adding to the list of resident species on this amazing plant.

References:

The Concise Flora of Singapore : Hsuan Keng Singapore University Press, 1990.

1001 Garden Plants in Singapore : Boo Chih Min, Kartini Omar-Hor and Ou-Yang Chow Lin, National Parks Board, 2nd Edition 2007.

Mallotus paniculatus - Asianplant.net.

Mallotus paniculatus, Useful Tropical Plants.

Euphorbiaceae, Wikipedia.

Text and Photos by Horace Tan.

Butterfly of the Month - December 2015
The Lesser Darkwing (Allotinus unicolor unicolor)

It's the final month of the year 2015 as we feature our last Butterfly of the Month in this series that has been going on for the past eight years! We started way back in December 2007 with our first feature butterfly, the Malay Lacewing. So eight years and 97 butterflies later, we now showcase our 98th butterfly of the month for December 2015.

Note the extra long abdomen of the Lesser Darkwing

The monsoon season has begun a few weeks back, clearing our dreaded haze, and making our air safe to breathe again. The haze and the rainy season seems to have taken a severe toll on our butterfly population. There seems to be fewer butterflies out and about, particularly the forest-dependent species. Urban parks and gardens are still quite active with the common species visiting the flowering bushes, but numbers are generally much lower than previous years.

With NParks starting the biodiversity monitoring programme in collaboration with the nature community in Singapore, there will at least be a regular documentation of butterfly population in the coming years. The biodiversity surveys are done with the help of citizen science programmes and in collaboration with the public. This has the added benefit of getting a larger number of Singaporeans and the resident population more involved in nature conservation and community projects.

A pristine individual with a very distinct dentate hindwing

With more active community groups like the Seletar Country Club Butterfly garden group (under Mr Foo JL), the Tampines-Changkat Butterflygarden Interest Group, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Butterfly Garden group and others, the nature conservation message is being effectively spread in the community and importantly, to the younger generation. This is encouraging, as there are now more butterfly enthusiasts working to conserve our butterfly diversity for future generations to enjoy.

NParks is also getting in the act, with programmes like BioBlitz and the biannual Butterfly Count across urban parks in Singapore. A Species-Recovery project is also being organised to make another attempt to save the Harlequin butterfly's habitat and help to conserve this species in Singapore. JTC is also being roped in to help with the conservation programme and this will take place in 2016.

Coming back to our Butterfly of the Month for December 2015, we feature a small-sized species from the subfamily Miletinae from the Lycaenidae family. The Miletinae is often referred to as the "Harvesters", probably due to their behaviour of predating on Homoptera like aphids, coccids, mealy bugs and even ant larvae! In my earlier article on this blog, entitled Mergers, Partnerships and Betrayals, the behaviour and feeding habits of the Miletinae are discussed.

A Lesser Darkwing rests amongst some grasses

We introduce our Butterfly of the Month, the Lesser Darkwing. The original name given for this butterfly was Lesser Darkie. However, due to racial sensitivities, the name of this butterfly was amended to Lesser Darkwing. This new common name was first suggested by Dr Laurence Kirton in his 2014 book, Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. We concur with the proposed name change, and have adopted it in the 2nd Edition of Butterflies of Singapore.

The Lesser Darkwing is a small butterfly, usually fluttering for long periods of time amongst bushes in the shade. The butterfly is usually looking for Homoptera and ant colonies that are tending to these Homoptera. Hence the distribution of this species is widespread, depending on plant species that are infested with aphids, coccids, membracids and mealy bugs.

A Lesser Darkwing perches on four of its six legs with the forelegs folded against its thorax

The Lesser Darkwing is dark brown on the upperside and unmarked, except for a short light greyish brand at vein 4 of the forewing in the male. The female has a more rounded forewing and is of a warmer reddish brown above. The hindwing margins are dentate, often more prominent in pristine individuals.

The ground colour of the underside is a greyish white and is highly variable, with a series of dark brown spots and light striations on both wings. The eyes of the Lesser Darkwing are yellowish-green. Despite having three fully developed pairs of legs, the butterfly prefers to fold its forelegs against its thorax, and use only two pairs of legs to support itself when at rest.

An ant checks out a Lesser Darkwing but not harming it

The species has a weak restless flight and prefers shaded forested areas where it flutters amongst the shrubbery. At times, it stops to rest with its wings folded upright, and if undisturbed, can stay in that position for long periods of time. It is curious to note that the Lesser Darkwing is quite comfortable in the presence of ants and strangely, the ants do not attack the butterfly.

And so we end the year 2015 with a inconspicuous and modest butterfly. A new year is just round the corner, and we will be doing our usual year-end review at the end of the month whilst looking ahead to a new and hopefully more butterfly-ful year in 2016!

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Chng CK, Khew SK, Koh CH and Loke PF.

Book Review - Butterflies of Sri Lanka

Butterfly of the Month - March 2015

Life History of the Ultra Snow Flat

Life History of the Bamboo Paintbrush Swift

NParks Butterfly Count 2015

Larval Host Plant for Butterflies: Saga Seed Tree

Butterfly of the Month - September 2015

Life History of the Plain Lacewing

Two Additions to the Singapore Checklist

Life History of the Dingy Bush Brown

Two Lycaenidae to Make it 322!

Larval Host Plant for Butterflies: Batoko Plum

Butterfly of the Month - October 2015

Two Skippers Added to the Singapore Checklist

Life History of the Tree Yellow

Butterflies of Singapore 2nd Edition

Life History of the Bengal Swift

Butterfly of the Month - November 2015

Larval Host Plant for Butterflies: Turn-in-the-Wind

Butterfly of the Month - December 2015