The Narrow Spark (Sinthusa nasaka amba)
A Narrow Spark feeding on the flowers of the Bandicoot Berry (Leea indica)
We are well into the 4th Quarter of 2025 and the tenth month of the year will soon be history. Speaking of history, for the first time, Singapore's population reached a historical high of 6.11M residents on this little island nation. Driven by foreign workers (especially in construction, marine shipyard, domestic sectors), that means that there is 120m2 of land area per person in Singapore - only Monaco (38m2 per person) and Macau (50m2 per person) are denser globally.
In global politics, Japan has made another historical first - Sanae Takaichi was elected as Prime Minister of Japan and the first woman ever to serve as Prime Minister of Japan in the country’s modern history. Since Japan’s first post-war prime minister in 1947 (Shigeru Yoshida), all 32 prime ministers before Sanae Takaichi have been men.
On 20 Oct 2025, the Hindu community in Singapore celebrated the Festival of Lights or Diwali (also known as Deepavali. Deepavali in Singapore is both a religious festival and a national celebration of cultural diversity — a time when the whole city, not just the Indian community, joins in the joy and light. It is one of the most vibrant and widely celebrated cultural festivals — recognized as a public holiday and an important part of the nation’s multicultural calendar.
A Narrow Spark feeding on the flowers of the Buas-Buas shrub (Premna serratifolia)
Our feature butterfly for the month of October 2025 is the diminutive Narrow Spark (Sinthusa nasaka amba) a forest-dependent Lycaenidae that was first recorded in Singapore some time in 1995. Early references did not record this butterfly as extant in Singapore and it is still considered an "exotic" even after 30 years! Butterfly observers would, by now, take this species as a Permanent Resident as it has been quite regularly observed in the forested nature reserves.
A newly eclosed female Narrow Spark perched on a twig
The Narrow Spark is sometimes mistaken for the more common, and larger, Common Tit (Hypolycaena erylus teatus) as its general appearance is quite similar. The Narrow Spark, however, is only about half the size of the Common Tit, and has distinguishing differences when viewed more closely. Firstly, the Narrow Spark has only two white-tipped filamentous tails on the hindwing, whilst the Common Tit features four.
A female Narrow Spark shows off its uppersides whilst sunbathing
Above, the male Narrow Spark is a luscious ultramarine blue with a dark brown costal border. The female is dark brownish-black with a white tornal area bearing black spots on the hindwing. On the underside, there is an ochreous median stripe that is prominently continuous across both wings, but broken on the hindwing. The apical area of the forewing is shaded orange.
On the hindwing, there is a large prominent black spot and another on the lobe at the tornal area. The tornal area is sparsely dusted with metallic green scales and features a filamentous white-tipped tail at vein 2 of the hindwing. The eyes are an opaque jet black whilst the antennae are black-and-white banded with an orange tip at the clubbed end. The legs are also black-and-white banded.
The Narrow Spark has been successfully bred on Eurya acuminata in Singapore. The caterpillar host plant is common in the forested nature reserves and despite its status as "exotic" in the Singapore checklist, it may be likely that this tiny butterfly may have been missed by the early authors and has existed in Singapore all this time.
Text by Khew SK : Photso by Choy Chan Wah, David Ho, Khew SK, Koh CH, Lee Yue Teng, Loh MY, Michael Soh, Horace Tan and Mark Wong
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