The Felder's Royal (Tajuria mantra mantra)
2024 is almost over, as Christmas has come and gone, and many residents of Singapore are making their way back to this little Red Dot after a good vacation abroad. As with most Decembers (except during Covid period), it is a time for locals to get away for a good break from work or school. The local weather has not been cooperative for butterfly outings, as this is also the period of the NorthEast monsoons where the region gets inundated with heavy rains.
As it was, there were flash floods just yesterday in Singapore, as torrential rains descended on the island with a vengeance. Despite careful planning, constant upgrading and drainage expansion works, the local agency, Public Utilities Board still has to contend with flooding (not ponding!) in Singapore from time to time. Several low-lying areas will continue to see these occasional flash floods due to the much larger volumes of water coming down in a much shorter time compared to yesteryears.
Globally, the world waits to see how the new Trump Administration in the US will craft their new policies that will affect bilateral politics, economies and world security when the new President of the United States of America is sworn in in early January 2025. Will the new world order be more peaceful for everyone where there is mutual economic growth and stability? Or will the world be divided between the superpowers? 2025 will be a watershed year for global politics.
And as if to remind us that life is fragile, where we, or our loved ones can be taken away in a flash, there were two aircraft disasters in the past week ending 2024 tragically for some passengers and their families. The first, an Azerbaijan plane carrying almost 70 passengers crashed in Kazakhstan, allegedly shot down by the Russians. There were 27 survivors. Then another tragic crash happened at Muan International Airport in Korea, where a plane carrying 181 passengers and crew smashed into a concrete barrier after an emergency landing. Two crew members survived.
Our final Butterfly of the Month for 2024 is the Felder's Royal (Tajuria mantra mantra). This species was re-discovered in Singapore in 1999. It is relatively uncommon but widely distributed across Singapore. Sightings of the Felder's Royal have been recorded from urban parks and gardens as well as the forested nature reserves. Around noon, the fast-flying adults have been sighted taking nectar at flowering plants in both hill parks and in gardens sited along the fringe of nature reserves. At times several adults could be seen dog-fighting at tree-top level in the mid afternoon.
The upperside of the male is shining greenish-blue and the female is paler purplish blue. Both sexes have a broad apical black border in the forewing, and a black costal border in the hindwing with inner edges evenly curved to below vein 6 in male and to vein 4 in female. The female has additional marginal spots at tornus and in spaces 1b, 2 to 4.
On the underside, both sexes are drab greyish-brown. The forewing post-discal line is much closer to termen than to the cell-end. The hindwing has large black tornal spots in spaces 1a and 2 which are broadly orange-crowned. There are two pairs of white-tipped tails at ends of veins 1b and 2 respectively. The species is often confused with the Flash Royal (Tajuria deudorix ingeni) that was recently re-discovered in 2023 after its life history was documented. Key differences between the two species can be found in the blog post.
The Felder's Royal's caterpillars, thus far, feed exclusively on one species of mistletoe, Macrosolen cochinchinensis (Common Chinese Mistletoe) in Singapore. Many of the Lycaenidae's caterpillars depend on these parasitic and hemiparasitic plants and this underlines the importance of these often "unwelcomed" plants in our environment. Without these parasitic caterpillar host plants, their respective butterfly species will go extinct.
Text by Khew SK : Photos by Ash Foo, Choy CW, Khew SK, Koh CH, Loh MY, Low JK, Michael Soh, Horace Tan, Bene Tay and Anthony Wong.
