The Plain Palm Dart (Cephrenes acalle niasicus)
A male Plain Palm Dart feeding on a Periwinkle flower at Pulau Ubin
In the month of August, Singapore spared no effort in celebrating its 60th birthday after independence. The island state had its National Day over several locations, featuring its airshow, fireworks and celebratory concerts. As a young nation, Singapore has come a long way from the fateful day of separation with Malaysia, and defied all odds to become one of the world's richest nations in terms of Gross Domestic Product per capita.
It was also PM Lawrence Wong's first National Day Rally after the recent General Elections gave him and his team a decisive mandate to take the country forward for another five-year term of office. The victory for the 4G leadership team had even higher votes than the previous election, garnering 65.57% of the valid votes - an increase of 4.35% over the 2020 General Elections.
The traditional Asian Hungry Ghost Festival started late this month, commencing on 23 Aug and ending on 21 Sep in 2025. The Hungry Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival (also known as Zhong Yuan Jie 中元节 in Mandarin, Chung-Yuan 中元 in formal Chinese or Zhongyuan Festival in Taoism) and marks the opening of the Gates of Hell where the ghosts or spirits were able to return to Earth. Often called the Chinese Ghost Festival, it’s celebrated by Buddhist and Taoist devotees to honour the memories of the deceased.
Our Butterfly of the Month for August 2025 is from the Hesperiidae family - The Plain Palm Dart (Cephrenes acalle niasicus). For a while it was the sole representative of the genus in West Malaysia and Singapore until the discovery of another Indo-Australian species the Yellow Palm Dart (Cephrenes trichopepla) in Singapore in 2005. The Plain Palm Dart is described as "rare in the cultivated lowlands on the Malay Peninsula and is swift in flight and difficult to capture." (C&P5)
A male Plain Palm Dart feeding on the flowers of Syzygium sp.
A female Plain Palm Dart feeding on the flower of the Spanish Needle
The Plain Palm Dart is not uncommon in Singapore, although sightings are not regular. At times, both males and females have been seen feeding on flowering plants e.g. Syzygium flowers in bloom. Its distribution is ranges over urban parks and gardens and fringes of the nature reserves. It is regularly spotted on the offshore island of Pulau Ubin.
A male Plain Palm Dart perching on Coconut Palm - one of its caterpillar host plants
The adults of this species are similar to the Telicota sp. but are generally larger in size. The Plain Palm Dart is sexually dimorphic, with the males and females looking noticeable different in their external appearance. Above, the male is dark brown with orange-yellow markings on both wings. On the underside, the male is ochreous with markings sharply outlined in black, with a characteristic post-discal arrow-shaped black mark on the underside of the hindwing.
A female Plain Palm Dart feeding on the flower of Lantana camara
Females are sullied and may appear rather brownish and on the hindwing below, it has a purplish oily sheen, although it has been described as extremely variable and sometimes appear greenish, bluish, besides the more commonly encountered purplish sheen. Females appear to be more commonly observed than males.
The life history of the Plain Palm Dart has been fully documented in Singapore on the Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera) and a species of Livistonia. The early stages records can be found on this blogpost here. In West Malaysia, alternative host plants are Calamus (Rotan) and Elaeis guineensis (Oil Palm).
Text by Khew SK : Photos by Federick Ho, Khew SK, Loke PF and Horace Tan
