Butterfly of the Month - November 2008

Butterfly of the Month - November 2008
The Dark Blue Jungle Glory (Thaumantis klugius lucipor)

The Dark Blue Jungle Glory (Thaumantis klugius lucipor) belongs to the sub-family Morphinae of the family Nymphalidae (Brush-Footed Butterflies). It is a forest-dependent species which is rather rare. Although it is observed from time to time in the nature reserves, very little is known of its life history in Singapore, nor the host plant its caterpillars feed upon. Often, only individuals are observed, displaying its typical sulking behaviour, feeding on rotting fruit and other organic plant waste amongst the forest litter.

A Dark Blue Jungle Glory is well camouflaged amongst the dead leaf litter on a forest trail in the nature reserves in Singapore

The Dark Blue Jungle Glory, which is the sole representative of the Thaumantis genus in Singapore, has its upper sides an iridescent deep ultramarine blue in colour. The beauty of this tropical butterfly is often compared to the Morphos butterflies of the Amazonian forests.

As it flaps its wings whilst feeding on overripe figs on the forest floor, this individual flashes a glimpse of its deep ultramarine blue upperside

The undersides of this species bears crypic patterns of various shades of brown. This camouflage renders the butterfly invisible when feeding on the forest floor amongst the dead leaves and other organic clutter. This explains why the butterfly is more often seen with a flash of deep blue as it makes its escape when disturbed. Most of the time, the butterfly has a sulking habit, preferring deep forested areas, and keeping close to the ground. It is usually seen early the morning or in the later hours of the day.

Although it has been written that the species is generally not attracted to rotting fruit bait, it has been observed to feed on overripe fig fruits in the nature reserves in Singapore. It may well be that the Dark Blue Jungle Glory does not share the same preference to the rotting fruits that other species of the Morphinae are attracted to.

The iridescent deep blue colour of the wings above extends from the base to the black submarginal border in the male and is much reduced in the female, where the blue is restricted to the outer half of the wings. The butterfly is relatively large, and attains a wingspan of up to 100mm in the females.

Text by Khew SK ; Photos by Khew SK, Anthony Wong, Mark Wong & Sunny Chir

Life History of the Ancyra Blue

Life History of the Ancyra Blue (Catopyrops ancyra)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Catopyrops Toxopeus, 1929
Species: ancyra C. Felder, 1860
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 24mm
Caterpillar Host Plants: Pipturus argenteus (Urticaceae), Trema tomentosa (Ulmaceae)

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:
Above, the male is dull blue with two black and subequal tornal spots on the hindwing. The female is fuscous black with basal parts shot with iridescent blue on the forewing and duller blue on the hindwing, and it has black submarginal spots on the hindwing with those spots in spaces 1b and 2 crowned with orange. Underneath, the dark interneural submarginal spots on the hindwing are separated from the rest of the wing by a narrow lunulate line, and the orange areas crowning the large dark subequal spots in spaces 1b and 2 are inwardly defined by a narrow dark line. There is a pair of white-tipped tails at the end of vein 2 on the hindwings.


One male Ancyra Blue pondering on his next move


Another Ancyra Blue ready to take flight under the hot midday sun.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:
This species was not recorded as being extant in Singapore by early researchers. It was first sighted in 2004 in Pulau Ubin by ButterflyCircle members, and since then, sightings have been made at multiple locations on the Singapore main island, including the Central Catchment Reserves, the Southern Ridges and western areas of Singapore, where the host plants are found to be thriving. Typically, a small colony of the adults can be found in one location. Encounters with the adults usually take place in brightly-lit condition with them engaging in activities such as sunbathing, dog-fighting or making oviposition visits to the host plants.

Early Stages:

Outside Singapore, recorded host plants are found in the plant families Urticaceae, Fabaceae (Caesalpiniaceae) and Euphorbiaceae. The local host plants recorded todate are Pipturus argenteus (Urticaceae) and Trema tomentosa (Ulmaceae), the latter being a new addition attributed to Sunny Chir, an active ButterflyCircle member, who sighted a small colony with females ovipositing on the host plant in an urban park. According to Prof. Konrad Fiedler, this is the first confirmed record of Trema-feeding in C. ancyra.

Trema tomentosa is a shrub or small tree with ovate or ovate-elliptic leaves of length 8-15cm. The acuminate leaves are toothed and three-nerved from the base with undersides covered in tiny silvery hairs. Though not common locally, this plant can be found in various waste grounds such as the abandoned farmland in the west, the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and the Southern Ridges. The early stages of the Ancyra Blue mainly feed on the flower buds. However, when flower buds are in short supply, the caterpillars have been observed to munch on young leaf shoots. Furthermore, the final instar caterpillar has no trouble dealing with the tougher lamina of mature leaves.


The host plant, Trema tomentosa.


Clusters of flower buds of Trema tomentosa.

Eggs of Ancyra Blue are laid singly on the underside of a leaf. The egg is small (about 0.4-0.5mm in diameter) and light green in colour, circular with a slightly depressed micropylar area and a reticulated pattern of intersecting ridges.


Left: an egg of the Ancyra Blue, diameter: 0.4mm-0.5mm. Right: ready for hatching.

An animated hatching sequence of an Ancyra Blue caterpillar.
The actual process lasts about 2 minutes.

Two to three days later, hatching takes place after the young caterpillar has nibbled away sufficiently large upper portion of the egg shell to emerge. Measured at a length of about 0.8mm-0.9mm, its pale yellow body is cylindrical in shape, sporting long setae (hairs) and a dark brown head capsule.


1st instar caterpillar feeding on a flower bud, length: 1.2mm

The 1st instar caterpillar finds its way from the leaf underside to a nearby cluster of flower buds to start its feeding frenzy. As it feeds and grows, it gradually takes on a yellowish to light greenish coloration.

Another feeding 1st instar caterpillar with frass pellets nearby, late in this stage, length: 1.8mm

After about 3 days of growth and reaching a length of about 2mm, the caterpillar moults to the next instar. The 2nd instar caterpillar has numerous short setae covering its body which has taken on a woodlouse shape. The body is yellowish green overall with the head capsule now in pale yellow.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 2.5mm

The 2nd instar caterpillar reaches a length of about 4mm, and after 2-3 days in this stage, it moults again. The 3rd instar caterpillar has proportionately shorter but still numerous body hairs, a green body color and a wider body compared to the earlier instars. This instar takes 3 days to complete with the body length reaching about 5.5mm.


Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 5.5mm

The 4th (and final) instar caterpillar is more striking in general appearance as there are a fair number of prominent white specks doting the green body surface, in addition to other smaller brown specks which are less discernible. Zooming in on these specks, one could see that they occur at the base of setae and have an "asterisk" structure. These structures could serve as mechano-receptors or might be glandular in nature. At a larger scale, the typical lycaenid nectary organs (both the dorsal nectary organ on the 7th abdominal segment and tentacular organs on the 8th abdominal segment) are now distinguishable.

Two views of 4th instar caterpillars in varying degrees of development,
Lengths as stated in the pictures.

The white "asterisk" structures at base of setae on the body of a 4th instar caterpillar.

A 4th instar caterpillar showing the presence of the dorsal nectary organ and tentacular organs.

After 5 days of growth and reaching a maximum length of around 12mm in the final instar, the body of the caterpillar gradually shrinks. Soon the caterpillar seeks out a spot on the surface of an adjacent leaf to station itself. At this site, it enters the pre-pupatory phase where it readies itself for pupation by spinning a silk girdle and a silk pad. The caterpillar secures itself to the silk pad via claspers on its posterior end.


Two views of a pre-pupa of the Ancyra Blue, showing a finished silk girdle
securing the pre-pupa to the leaf surface.

An animated pupation sequence for an Ancyra Blue caterpillar.

Pupation takes place after 1 to 1.5 days of the pre-pupal stage. The pupa has the typical shape for most Lycaenid species. It is greenish in color with a few brown and black specks scattered on the surface. The pupa has a length of about 7-8mm.


Two views of a fresh pupa of the Ancyra Blue.

5 to 5.5 days later, the pupa becomes darkened in color signaling the imminent emergence of the adult. The next day the adult butterfly emerges from the mature pupa in the morning hours. Out of a group of 8 adults successfully bred in the last month, 3 were male and the rest female.


Mature pupae: male (top), female (bottom). Note the difference in the wing pad area as
the forewing uppersides are different for the two sexes.


A short eclosion sequence of one male Ancyra Blue


A newly eclosed Ancyra Blue resting next to its pupal case.


Another newly eclosed Ancyra Blue

Acknowledgments:

I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Konrad Fiedler for his generous advice on host plant information for the Catopyrops spp. and the functions of the "asterisk" structures found on the body surface of the mature larvae.

References:

• The Butterflies of The Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malayan Nature Society.
• Butterflies of Borneo, Vol.2, No.1 Lycaenidae, Y. Seki, Y Takanami & K. Otsuka, Tobishima Corporation 1991.

Text and photos by Horace Tan

Butterfly Photography at our Local Parks #3

Butterfly Photography and Watching at our Local Parks
Featuring : Butterfly Hill @ Pulau Ubin

About Pulau Ubin
Shaped like a boomerang, Pulau Ubin (Granite Island) is situated just off the northeastern corner of mainland Singapore. The 1020-hectare island was once a cluster of five smaller ones separated by tidal rivers, but the building of bunds for prawn farming has since united these into a single island. Two other islets, Pulau Ketam (Crab Island) and Pulau Sekudu (Frog Island), lie to its south. Ubin is largely a series of undulating, granite hills. In the early days, granite mining supported a few thousand settlers. Much of the original vegetation was cleared for the cultivation of rubber and crops like coffee, pineapple, coconut and jasmine. Today, abandoned granite quarries remain as picturesque relics of Ubin's history, while forests and grasslands have regenerated to cover up the ravages of the past. (Source : NParks Website)

Pulau Ubin is well-known for its relatively unspoilt habitats brimming with rich diversity of flora and fauna. Many nature lovers and enthusiasts make their way there on weekends to spend their time observing and enjoying nature in one of Singapore's remaining frontiers of undeveloped tracts of forests.

Besides the usual weekend activities of trekking, cycling, bird watching, etc., not many are aware of a lushly landscaped hillock just to the west of the jetty and Ubin town, along Jalan Jelutong. This hillock, planted specially with butterfly-attracting plants, has been the destination of many butterfly enthusiasts and photographers over the past couple of years.

At least 60 species of butterflies have been spotted on Ubin's Butterfly Hill over the past years - a few of which were first discovered on Ubin, and which were new to the Singapore Butterfly Checklist.

Ubin's Butterfly Hill is a short 5 minute walk from the jetty. Upon landing at the jetty, turn left towards the town and walk until you reach the NParks maintenance base (where there are also public toilet facilities). Continue along the dirt path until you reach the main access point to the Butterfly Hill. A prominent landmark at the hilltop is a pyramidal-roofed hut where one can take shelter from the hot sun (or rain, as the case may be). All around the hut are various plants which were originally selected for their butterfly-attracting properties.

On a typical good day, an observer should be able to spot no less than 20-25 species of butterflies. Amongst the top 10 "resident" species are the Pea Blue, Plain Tiger, Mottled Emigrant, Common Red Flash, Common Grass Yellow, Blue Glassy Tiger, Dark Glassy Tiger, Painted Jezebel, Striped Albatross and Blue Pansy.

A Plain Tiger strikes a menacing pose on Ubin's Butterfly Hill


A mating pair of Pea Blues (Lampides boeticus), a resident species at Ubin's Butterfly Hill.

Station yourself at the various nectaring flowering plants like the Common Snakeweed, Creeping Daisies, Ixora, and so on, and you will be rewarded with sightings of various species of butterflies. The early morning hours are better, as it will be less breezy and more conducive for butterfly photography.

Do look out for the Dwarf Crow (Euploea tulliolus ledereri) - a resident Ubin species which was originally discovered on Pulau Ubin, and not found elsewhere on Singapore island. Also first discovered on Ubin, are the Ancyra Blue (Catopyrops ancyra), Dingy Line Blue (Petrelaea dana dana) and the skipper Cephrenes acalle niasicus, and they occasionally visit the flowers at Butterfly Hill as well.

A Dwarf Crow (Euploea tulliolus ledereri), a Danainae that was first discovered on Pulau Ubin.

Check out the open plains areas where tall lallang grows. You may often find Tawny Costers (Acraea violae), a variety of skippers and other Lycaenids taking a rest on the lallangs waving in the breeze.

Observe carefully the leaves of Calotropis gigantea, Pomelo and Seven Golden Candlesticks (Senna alata), and you may find the caterpillars of the Plain Tiger, Great Mormon and Mottled Emigrant respectively, as these are the butterflies' host plants.

An assortment of some of the butterfly species (and one large Atlas Moth!) that you may expect to encounter on Ubin's Butterfly Hill

Map of Pulau Ubin

The Butterfly Hill is located at the southern part of the island, just a short distance westwards from the Ubin Jetty (Click on Map to enlarge)

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Khew SK