Butterfly of the Month - May 2026

Butterfly of the Month - May 2026

The Common Redeye (Matapa aria)

A Common Redeye perched on top of a leaf in the shaded forest understorey

May 2026 is almost over. Five months have passed. The tumultuous world continues to be more fragmented, contested, and unpredictable. The highlight of the month of May was the US President's official visit to China. This was President Trump's 2nd visit to China after a nine-year interval. The visit dominated news portals for a week as speculations of what news, good or bad, will come out of the visit between the Presidents of the two most powerful nations in the world today.

As can be expected, the conclusions of the outcome of the visit were quite different on both sides, but the US outlined several agreements made. The White House reported that "Both leaders agreed Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, called to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and agreed that no country or organization can be allowed to charge tolls." Whilst this sounded like good news, the actual events on the ground at the Strait of Hormuz indicate that there is no certainty that the US will end the war just yet.

On the issue of Taiwan, President Xi remained resolute in his stance, and reserved his sharpest language for Taiwan, calling it “the most important issue in U.S.-China relations.” The stakes, he said, could not be higher: “Handle it well, the relationship holds; handle it badly, the two countries risk collision or conflict.” The US President avoided a direct reply, indicating instead that the "US policy on Taiwan remained unchanged."

Just two weeks after President Trump's visit to China, the 23rd Shangrila Dialogue - the 23rd edition of Asia's leading annual defence summit was held in Singapore. In his address, the US Secretary of War, Peter Hegseth said there is “rightful alarm” over China’s rapid military expansion and increasing military activity across the region. Hegseth called on U.S. allies and partners in Asia to increase defence spending, saying Washington expects partners to contribute more to their own security. One can only wonder if world peace is really a priority?  

Back to our more peaceful butterfly world and we feature our Butterfly of the Month for May 2026 - a small skipper called the Common Redeye (Matapa aria). A species of the Hesperiidae family, the Common Redeye is only known up to species level, implying that there are no geographically different subspecies across the world where it occurs.

Upperside of a newly-eclosed Common male Common Redeye

The Common Redeye is buff brown above and unmarked with the hindwing cilia, particularly in pristine individuals, a yellowish-white. Males have two obscure bowed brands on the upperside of the forewings. The underside is an ochreous brown, sometimes appearing almost a deep orange and unmarked. The abdomen is unicolourus with the wings and also without any bands or distinguishing features.

A macro closeup of the red eye of the Common Redeye

The most obvious feature of this species is its large bright red eyes that often stand out prominently in any photograph of it. The antennae tips are dark brown including the apiculus. The legs are plain ochreous brown throughout.

The Common Redeye is uncommon but not considered rare in Singapore. However, at times, the caterpillars can be found quite regularly on its host plants - various species of bamboo. This suggests that the species may be more common than believed - just that the adult butterfly may be shy and hard to spot in the field. The species is found mainly in urban parks and gardens where bamboos are cultivated, as well as in the forested nature reserves and our offshore islands.

The adult butterfly is more active at certain hours of the day - usually at dawn or dusk. At other times of the day, it may be spotted resting on the tops of leaves in the shaded forest understorey. It is a fast flyer and rests with its wings folded upright. Unlike many skippers, it is rarely spotted with opened wings in the usual skipper fashion. It has been successfully bred on Bambusa heterostachya (Malay Dwarf Bamboo), Bambusa multiplex (Hedge Bamboo, Chinese Dwarf Bamboo) and other Bambusa spp., Dendrocalamus spp.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by David Chan, David Ho, Khew SK, Koh CH, Lim KH, Low JK, Bobby Mun, Richard Ong, Horace Tan, Soh KY, Bene Tay, Art Toh and Yam TW.