Random Gallery - Black Veined Tiger

Random Butterfly Gallery 
The Black Veined Tiger (Danaus melanippus hegesippus)

Of the three Danaus species that occur in Singapore, the Black Veined Tiger is often considered the least common amongst the three. However, where its host plant, a Cynanchum sp. is abundant, the Black Veined Tiger can be found in decent numbers. This species is often confused with the Common Tiger (Danaus genutia genutia), but can easily be separated by its broader submarginal hindwing black border. The hindwing ground colour is also generally whiter in appearance.

This mating pair of Black Veined Tigers was observed on this first day of 2013 at the Pasir Ris Park's Butterfly Garden. It is interesting to observe that in this case, the male did the flying. When approached, the alert male would fly off, carrying the passive female as he looks for a safe place to hide amongst the bushes at the Butterfly Garden.

2012 - The Year in Review

ButterflyCircle 2012
The Year In Review

This will be the final weekend feature article for 2012 as we wrap up and close for the year. We look ahead to 2013 with hope and anticipation that our beloved winged jewels will continue to thrive and flourish in our environment on the tiny equatorial island of Singapore. We also look forward to more new discoveries and re-discoveries of species that will be included in the Singapore Checklist of Butterflies.

A Dry-Season Form Bush Brown during the wet season in Singapore?

Throughout the year, this blog recorded a total of 95 articles including this one. A reasonable achievement and an all-time record, considering that in 2011 we did a total of 73 articles which was the highest number of articles since we started this blog. Once again, many thanks to Horace Tan for his meticulous recording of the early stages of Singapore's butterflies, and also to all our members of ButterflyCircle who unselfishly shared their excellent photographs to give that extra quality to the articles on this blog.

Samples of Horace Tan's life history work

Horace recorded a total of 22 excellent Life History articles this year - with the complete photographic record of each species' from egg to all caterpillar instars to pupa. In many cases, video recordings of pupation and eclosion are also captured in vivid detail! There are few, if any, comparable work that records the butterflies' early stages with such meticulousness and detail.

Indeed, it was Horace's efforts that yielded ButterflyCircle's second book on the Caterpillars of Singapore's Butterflies.  This book, published by the National Parks Board, was launched successfully on 26 May 2012.  It was the culmination of many months of hard work by the NParks team (Rachel, Li-San and Linda), Horace and myself to put the book together from design, content, proof-reading and the final printing.  It was indeed a satisfying project for all involved and the effort paid off when we saw the final product.  It was an achievement for ButterflyCircle to have contributed to nature education and sharing of knowledge with specific reference to Singapore's butterflies.

A collage of ButterflyCircle members at the Festival of Biodiversity

Also in 2012, ButterflyCircle was featured at the Festival of Biodiversity.  The Festival was jointly organised by the National Parks Board and the Biodiversity Roundtable as a platform to showcase the nature community's efforts and raise awareness of Singapore's biodiversity.  We are proud to have been featured as a standalone community of butterfly enthusiasts and given recognition for the work that ButterflyCircle has done to promote the conservation of butterflies in Singapore.

Tampines-Changkat Butterfly Garden and Nature Centre featured in a media report

ButterflyCircle members also contributed to the creation of a Butterfly Garden at Tampines-Changkat.  The brainchild of Member of Parliament Ms Irene Ng, the Butterfly Garden was set up by a community group that has seen the Butterfly Garden featured in many publications and media articles.  Following the success of the Butterfly Garden, the new Tampines-Changkat Nature Centre was set up and declared open on 1 Sep 2012 by Ms Irene Ng.  This Nature Centre functions as an education resource for nature enthusiasts and a meeting place for like-minded volunteers in Tampines-Changkat.  More plans are in store for 2013!

Our four new butterfly species discoveries in 2012

A total of four new butterfly species were discovered in the year.  These were the Common Jester, Plain Puffin, Banded LineBlue and the Yellow Flat.  Three of the species were discovered by ButterflyCircle member Federick Ho (he must be extra lucky this year to have the Butterfly Fairy smile on him three times!).  By a "discovery" we mean that the species has not previously been recorded before by the early authors, collectors and researchers.  All four species can be found in Malaysia, but have never been listed on any Singapore checklist before.

There are several other species pending confirmation or further validation, so we will leave those for 2013 or when the species are confirmed with a good level of certainty by experts. Most of these unconfirmed species belong to the families of Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae, of which there are many lookalikes that may give some element of doubt without careful validation.

RANDOM GALLERY SERIES BY BUTTERFLYCIRCLE MEMBERS

In March 2012, this blog also started a Random Butterfly Gallery series that showcases the excellent photography of ButterflyCircle's members.  The series adds more colour and frequency to the blog articles in between the longer and more detailed weekly feature and life history articles.  

Favourite Butterfly Nectaring Plants series

In June 2012, we also commenced a new series on Favourite Butterfly Nectaring Plants, starting with the Snakeweed which was followed by the StringBush. More plants will be added in future articles and the information will be useful for those who are planning on setting up their own little butterfly garden or just planting to attract butterflies.

In July 2012, ButterflyCircle also played host to US researcher Melissa Whitaker who is pursuing her Doctorate at the University of California, Davis.  Her subject matter involves the study of butterly-ant relationships or myrmecophily. Melissa was on a tour of SouthEast Asian countries to collect material for her research when she dropped by Singapore for a couple of days to learn more about our local butterfly fauna.

ButterflyCircle and the Caterpillars of Singapore's Butterflies were also featured in NParks online newsletter, My Green Space.  The prolific fellow-blogger, Dr Wee Yeow Chin of the Bird Ecology Study Group (BESG) also chipped in and shared his stories of breeding the Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas).  I have always admired Dr Wee for his hard work and sharing of articles of interest about birds, and has contributed more, in terms of educating nature enthusiasts and the layman alike, than any other birder has done.

BUTTERFLIES OF THE MONTH FROM JAN - DEC 2012

The five-year running series, Butterfly of the Month, saw the continuation of the long-running feature articles showcasing our beautiful flying jewels with 12 more species featured in each month of 2012. Which one is your personal favourite Butterfly of the Month in 2012? Do post a message on this blog and let us know.

Exotic butterfles from Sulawesi and Taiwan

ButterflyCircle members also organised group outings beyond Singapore's shores to learn more about butterflies in the region. Trip reports and mouth-watering butterfly photos from various locations in Thailand, Sulawesi, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia can be found at our forums.

A Butterflies of Singapore FaceBook Group was also set up, and the active site has daily posts from members from all over the world. The membership is growing steadily and at the time of this article, has already gone past 460 members.

All in all, it has been a very eventful year for ButterflyCircle.  We hope to continue by sharing our members' works and stories in 2013 and for as long as we can.  It is encouraging that besides the founding senior members and stalwarts in ButterflyCircle, we also have young and talented members who have joined us as well.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members and readers of this blog a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Text by Khew SK : Photos by James Chia, Sunny Chir, Chng CK, Federick Ho, Goh Eng Chuan, Huang CJ, Khew SK, Koh CH, Loke PF, Nelson Ong, Jonathan Soong, Horace Tan, Tan CP, Lemon Tea, Anthony Wong & Benjamin Yam

Random Gallery - Common Rose

Random Butterfly Gallery
The Common Rose (Pachliopta aristolochiae asteris)

The Common Rose would hardly be "common" as its name would suggest, if not for the cultivation of its host plants - Aristolochia spp. in various parks, gardens and landscaping projects in Singapore. Brought back from the brink of extinction, the species is now found in areas where its host plants thrive.  Continued cultivation of its caterpillar host plants will ensure the conservation of this species in the Singapore butterfly fauna.

The butterfly is usually active, flying almost non-stop for long periods of time, continuing to flap its wings, even as it slows down to feed on flowering plants.  Occasionally, it stops to rest with its wings opened flat on the top surfaces of leaves, but it is skittish and takes of quickly if it senses any movement nearby. This shot of an in-flight Common Rose feeding on the flowers of the Snakeweed was taken by ButterflyCircle member Loke PF last weekend at Hort Park.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013!
From ButterflyCircle

Here's wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers and members of ButterflyCircle.

The feature butterfly this year is the recently-discovered Yellow Flat (Mooreana trichoneura trichoneura). Perched as a "tree-topper" decoration on a Christmas tree, this Flat celebrates the end of another good year for ButterflyCircle and its members.

As we prepare for the festive cheer of the season, do be happy and thankful for the little things that we enjoy in life (like butterflies!) and to appreciate everything that we have.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Life History of the Banded Swallowtail

Life History of the Banded Swallowtail (Papilio demolion demolion)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Papilio Linnaeus, 1758
Species: demolion Cramer, 1776
Subspecies: demolion Cramer, 1776VUWingspan of Adult Butterfly: 75-95mm
Caterpillar Host Plants: Luvunga crassifolia (Rutaceae), Luvunga scandens (Rutaceae), Melicope lunu-ankenda (Rutaceae).

A male Banded Swallowtail resting at a leaf perch.

A female Banded Swallowtail resting at a leaf perch.

Partial upperside views of the Banded Swallowtail showing one key difference (circled) between the two sexes.

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:

Above, both sexes are black with a macular band of pale greenish spots extending from the forewing apex to the hindwing's mid-dorsum. The hindwing has a series of submarginal pale greenish lunules and a black tornal spot embedded in a much larger orange spot. The female has the inner half of the lunule in space 2 further coloured in orange (see above pic). Underneath, both sexes are similar with the macular band and submarginal lunules in the hindwing much broader and the area between them subdivided into two series of black spots by patches of orange and bluish-green scales. There is a moderately long spatulate black tail at end of vein 4 in the hindwing. Mirroring the difference in the hindwing upperside, the female has half of the submarginal lunule in space 2 coloured orange (see highlight A in below pic). The sinusoidal marginal black band is continuous in spaces 6 and 7 in the male, but broken in the female (see highlight B in below pic).

Partial underside views of the Banded Swallowtail showing two key differences (circled, marked A, B) between the two sexes.

A male Banded Swallowtail puddling on wet ground.

A puddling male Banded Swallowtail.

Another puddling male Banded Swallowtail.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:

Banded Swallowtail is moderately common in Singapore. The adults can be found in the nature reserves, wastelands, mangrove habitats and in offshore islands like Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong. The fast flying adults are frequently seen in flights along trails/tracks and while making occassional stops to visiting flowers growing in the surrounding vegetation. During cooler hours in early morning and late afternoon, adults could be found resting on leaf perches in an open wing manner. The males have been observed to puddle on wet grounds.

Random Gallery - Common Palmfly

Random Butterfly Gallery
The Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra agina)

The Common Palmfly is a common urban butterfly, usually observed in areas where its host plants - various species of Palms are cultivated. The species is widely distributed across Singapore, paricularly in locations where the host plants are found - whether in public parks, gardens or in the nature reserves. The Common Palmfly has bluish-black forewings with a series of light blue submarginal spots on the upperside. The underside is speckled with reddish-brown striae and is very variable.

This shot of the Common Palmfly was taken by ButterflyCircle member Henry Koh, using a 300mm f/4 lens with a 1.4x teleconvertor. Besides dedicated macro lenses, using long lenses (usually associated with bird photography) can sometimes be useful for skittish butterflies like the Common Palmfly.

Random Gallery - King Crow

Random Butterfly Gallery 
The King Crow (Euploea phaenareta castelnaui)

The King Crow is the largest of the "crow" butterflies from the sub-family Danainae.  Measuring over 100mm in wingspan, this species is relatively common in Singapore, and sometimes several individuals can be observed, particularly when there is a flowering tree or shrub that the species likes. It can usually be found where its caterpillar host plant, the Pong-Pong tree (Cerbera odollam) is cultivated. In Singapore, this species can regularly be observed at the Pasir Ris Park Mangrove Walk where the host plants are common in the mangrove environment.

This shot of the King Crow was taken by ButterflyCircle member Loke PF during his weekend outing.  The predominantly black butterfly has a slow and unhurried gliding flight.  The wings may show a slight purple wash in a side light.