Life History of the Malay Dartlet

Life History of the Malay Dartlet (Oriens paragola)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Oriens Evans, 1932
Species: paragola de Nicéille, 1896
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 22-27mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plant: Ottochloa nodosa (Poaceae).

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:

Above, both sexes are dark chocolate brown with amber-coloured post-discal bands on both fore- and hindwings, and amber-coloured cilia on the hindwing termen. The forewing band stretches from the dorssm to almost touching the costa, and is deeply excavate at vein 5. The lower cell spot fuses with this band at space 2. The hindwing post-discal band is shorter, stopping well short of the costa.   Underneath, the wings are dark brown  with  post-discal bands mirroring those on the uppersides. These bands are sharply defined and not edged by black spots (as is the case of the Oriens gola, the Common Dartlet).

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:

This species was not listed by early researchers as extant in Singapore. It was  discovered about one year ago and added to the Singapore checklist as species #297. According to C&P4, the Malay Dartlet frequents  lowland forests. However, adult sightings in Singapore  have so far been very infrequent and only confined to one grassland adjacent  to a forested area. The species has a preference for perching in semi-shady areas, and visiting flowers in the grassland for nectar. Given that the larval host plant is a common grass species, there is a possibility that Malay Dartlet exists elsewhere in Singapore. Even if this is not so now, this species  has the potential of spreading beyond the currently known location.

Early Stages:

The host plant, Ottochloa nodosa, is a common grass species which can be found in many locations in Singapore and is utilized by several other common skipper spp. (Common Dartlet, Chestbut Bob, and one Caltoris sp.) as larval host plant. The caterpillars of the Malay Dartlet feed on leaves of this plant, and live in shelters made by joining edges of a grass  blade together with silk threads.

Host plant: Ottochloa nodosa.

A female Malay Dartlet resting between oviposition runs.

A female Malay Dartlet laying an egg on the underside of a grass blade.

The eggs are laid singly on the underside of a leaf of the host plant. Between each oviposition run, during which one or two eggs are laid on separate leaves, the mother butterfly has the habit of  perching on a sunny spot  to re-energise  This could go on for a few rounds before the mother decides to retire altogether.  Each tall hemispherical egg is milky white and is finely recticulated.  The base diameter is about 0.75mm.

 

An egg of the Malay Dartlet.

A maturing egg of the Malay Dartlet.

A mature egg with the young caterpillar already nibbled away the polar part of the egg shell.

It takes about 5 days for the egg to hatch. The young caterpillar eats just enough of the shell to emerge, and will devour the rest of the egg shell after emergence. The newly hatched has a length of about 1.7-1.8mm. Its has a cylindrical body shape, very short dorso-lateral and sub-spiracular setae and a tuff of long setae at the posterior end. The body is creamy white with a prominent black collar on the dorsum of the prothorax. The head capsule is entirely black.

A newly hatched 1st instar caterpillar in the process of nibbling away its egg shell.

Two views of a newly hatched 1st instar caterpillar, soon after devouring the egg shell.

The body color changes to pale yellowish green after a few feeding sessions on the leaf. The newly hatched constructs its leaf shelter near the tip of a grass blade soon after it is done with the egg shell. Between feedings on the nearby leaf lamina, the caterpillar retreats to its shelter for rest and security. By the time the caterpillar lies dormant in its shelter for the moult to the 2nd instar, its length has reached about 4-4.5mm. The 1st instar takes about 4-4.5 days to complete.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 2.4mm.

Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 4mm.

The 2nd instar caterpillar is again whitish, but appears to be yellowish green with its "stomach" contents showing through the translucent cuticle.  The anal plate still carries a few setae but these are not as long and prominent as in the 1st instar. Although the prothoracic collar is still present, it appears to lose lighter in its black coloration. The head capsule is still black in colour. This instar lasts about 3-4 days with the body length reaching about 6.5-7mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 4.2mm.

Two views of a 2nd instar caterpillar, length: 5.2mm.

The 3nd instar caterpillar resembles the 2nd instar caterpillar closely in body markings except for the diminishing black prothoracic collar.  Two faint whitish dorso-lateral bands, first appears in the 2nd instar but less obvious, are now discernible. This instar lasts about 2-3 days with the body length reaching about 8.5-9mm.

A newly moulted 3rd instar caterpillar, the head capsule is yet to turn black.

Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar,  length: 7.2mm.

 

Two views of a 3nd instar caterpillar, later in this stage. length: 8.2mm.

The 4th instar caterpillar resembles the 3rd instar caterpillar closely but with the black prothoracic collar almost completely  diminished. As in the earlier instars, the head capsule is completely black and there is no markings on the anal plate.  This penultimate instar lasts 3-4 days with the body length reaching up to about 15.5-16mm.

Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, early in this stage, length: 12mm.

 
Two views of a 4th instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 15.8mm.

The 5th (and final) instar caterpillar loses the black coloration of its head capsule seen in the earlier instars. The head is  now pale neutral yellow to neutral green. The body colour has a strong tone of yellowish white, with two broad and whitish dorso-lateral bands and two narrow pale yellowish lateral bands.  This instar takes about 6-8 days to complete with the body length reaching up to about 24-25mm.

Two views of a  newly moulted 5th instar caterpillar.

 
Two views of a 5th instar caterpillar, late in this intar, length: 24mm.

Towards the end of the 5th instar, the the body of the caterpillar shortens and its base coloration changes to a translucent pale green. Tyipcally it picks the underside of a grass glade for its pupation site. It becomes dormant in this shallow leaf shelter and enters the prepupatory phase which lasts for one day.  During this time period the caterpillar spins a silk pad with a transverse band for the grapers in its anal prolegs to attach to, and a silk girdle across the dorsum of the 2nd-3rd abdominal segments.

Two views of a pre-pupa of the Malay Dartlet.

The pupa  secures itself to the substrate with a cremastral attachment to the silk pad and the previously constructed silk girdle. It is yellowish green throughout and has  dorsal, dorso-lateral and lateral whitish to yellowish bands. There is a long and pointed snout, and the abdomen is relatively long.  Length of pupae: 18.5-21.5mm.

A Malay Dartlet caterpillar molts to its pupal stage.

Two views of a pupa of the Malay Dartlet.

On the last day of the pupal period, the pupa becomes mostly dark brown. Yellowish orange  markings against a dark brown background are now visible in the wing cases. Finally after about 7-8 days of pupal phase, eclosion takes place with the adult emerging from the pupal case.

Two views of a mature pupa of the Malay Dartlet.

A Malay Dartlet emerges from its pupal stage.

A newly eclosed Malay Dartlet.

References:

• [C&P4] The Butterflies of The Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malayan Nature Society.
• Butterflies of Thailand, Pisuth Ek-Amnuay, 1st Edition, 2006

Text by Horace Tan, Photos by Koh Cher Hern, Loke PF, Chng CK, Sunny Chir, Khew SK and Horace Tan

Butterfly of the Month - December 2011

Butterfly of the Month - December 2011
The Scarce Silverstreak (Iraota rochana boswelliana)



On this New Year's Eve, we feature the last of our series of Butterfly of the Month feature species for the year 2011. This is the 49th species that we have on the Butterfly of the Month series since this monthly feature was started way back in Dec 2007 with the Malay Lacewing.  It's been four years already?!

The year 2011 has indeed been a tumultuous year around the world. The most significant phenomenon that has affected lives all across the globe would have to be the protracted financial crisis that has plagued the US and then Europe. Businesses and the economies in the rest of the world, and in particularly in Asia which is of relevance to many of us in Singapore, were also affected.

Between the twin disasters in Japan, the earthquakes in New Zealand, the floods in Thailand and a whole series of 'natural' occurrings, these events give us an indication that ol' Mother Earth is not exactly in the pink of health. A sign of the effects of global warming?

Even in Singapore, where unprecedented "once-in-50-years" floods happened like every few months, engineers are scrambling to review design capacities of drainage systems. Conventional Codes of Practice may be way outdated and grossly inadequate for the deluge of water coming down from the heavens these days!

At a personal front, 2011 has indeed been an eventful year, with changes in my workplace that took many of us by surprise. As the company looks forward to a new future with a new shareholder in 2012, there is optimism ahead, as we put behind us 7 years of 'colonialism' under a foreign shareholder that spent very little effort to grow the business. The potential new shareholder, of Chinese origin, can hopefully bring the company forward, with Asia, and particularly China, being at the forefront of driving the world economy in the years to come.

For our beloved butterflies, it has also been a good year, with several new discoveries and re-discoveries recorded in 2011. As the Singapore Checklist crossed the 300 mark in March this year, ButterflyCircle has consolidated its expertise and had been more rigourous in recording new finds with further validation by experts in the region and even abroad. In particular, many other new finds in the Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae families remain unannounced as validations continue at the scientific level behind the scenes. We are confident that many of these discoveries will be unveiled in the year ahead.

 

It has also been encouraging to see more community effort in butterfly conservation projects, as government organisations like the National Parks Board moves up another gear into better nature conservation and biodiversity enhancement efforts at a strategic level. Even so, there are those who consider these efforts inadequate and too late for Singapore. However little that can be done, there is always still hope for nature, and for our flying jewels.

The birthstone for December is the turquoise. This precious gemstone is an opaque blue-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium. The stone has been used in a very wide range of applications, from the usual rings, bracelets and pendants in jewellery, to the inlays of the famous burial mask of King Tutankhamen, to entire domes of Iranian palaces and mosques!

If cold December gave you birth,
The month of snow and ice and mirth,
Place on your hand a turquoise blue;
Success will bless whate'er you do.
- Gregorian Birthstone Poems

For the month of December and on this last day of 2011, we feature the elegant Lycaenid, the Scarce Silverstreak (Iraota rochana boswelliana). With a wingspan of about 36mm, this robust hairstreak is a zippy butterfly and is able to fly around at high speeds.

The Scarce Silverstreak is not really as scarce as its English common name suggests, although we would hardly describe the species to be very common either. Due to the fact that its caterpillar host plant, Ficus microcarpa is cultivated as a common roadside bush at many of our parks and as low barrier roadside hedges in Singapore, the butterfly is more often seen in urban areas and parks than in the nature reserves.

The males are a shining greenish-blue, reminescent of a pretty turquoise jewel. With jet-black broad apical borders, the upperside of the butterfly is a sight to behold if and when the male Scarce Silverstreak opens his wings to sunbathe (which unfortunately, is a rare occurrence). Females are a dull bronzey brown above and unmarked.

The underside of both sexes feature cryptic patterns of brown and silvery-white streaks, with dashes of blue and gold on the hindwings. There is a large black eyespot at the tornal lobe and blue-green scaling at the tornal area. The hindwing sports 3 tails, with the one at vein 3 slightly more pronounced in the female.

The butterfly is a rapid flyer, with females more often seen than males. Perhaps this is more due to the fact that females are more regularly encountered when they descend from the treetop canopies to oviposit at their host plants in urban areas. Sightings are more often made in the late mornings and early afternoons. The life history of the Scarce Silverstreak has been recorded here.

The Scarce Silverstreak is quite regularly observed at the Southern Ridges in Singapore, primarily at the hillside parks at Mount Faber, Telok Blangah Hills Park and Kent Ridge Park. They usually stay at treetop level, descending to feed at flowers or the fruits of the Singapore Rhododendron (Melastoma malabathricum). Females tend to open their wings to sunbathe more often than the rarely-seen males.

And so on this final day of December 2011, we feature this pretty Lycaenid, as we look forward to many more years of butterflying ahead. On behalf of all the members ButterflyCircle, I wish all our readers and friends all around the world a Happy New Year ahead!   Three Cheers to our Butterflies!

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Goh LC, Khew SK, Nelson Ong, Jonathan Soong and Horace Tan

This blog article is specially dedicated to Sunny Chir, who goes by the nick 'Silverstreak' in our ButterflyCircle community.  Sunny is an amazing photographer and butterfly watcher who has single-handedly delivered some of the best photographs of rare species that I've seen anywhere!  He has also contributed to many discoveries and re-discoveries to the Singapore checklist due to his untiring efforts out in the field, and exceptionally eagle-eyed observations of our butterfly fauna. 

A New Butterfly Garden at Tampines

A New Butterfly Garden at Tampines
Tampines-Changkat Community Garden

Some time back on 3 April 2011, a small 'ground-breaking' ceremony took place at the open space next to Block 124, Tampines Street 11. The ceremony was for the community residents to be introduced to a new butterfly garden. The brainchild of the Member of Parliament for Tampines-Changkat, Ms Irene Ng, the butterfly garden would be a new eco-friendly initiative to create a butterfly-conducive habitat for residents and nature enthusiasts to enjoy.

Noting that "there are few butterflies around Tampines as they are sensitive to fogging and pesticides" MP Irene Ing said that the butterfly garden is intended to create a natural setting with butterfly hostplants and nectaring plants to attract these flying beauties to this little patch of green amongst the residential blocks.

As the butterfly garden and the construction of a circular enclosure took place, the community centre's staff and a group of enthusiasts from the Residents' Committee realised that they were not familiar nor knowledgeable enough with the ecology of butterflies to attract them to the proposed garden. One of them approached me to give the community members and enthusiasts a talk about butterflies.

When I visited the new butterfly garden that was under construction, I noted that there were a few improvements that could be made to the design of the enclosure. For one, due to the flat top design of the circular enclosure there were 'angles' that would trap the butterflies within the enclosure. Another oversight was a stepped concrete bridge that allowed an elevated platform within the enclosure. This was not particularly handicapped-friendly. However, as the construction of the enclosure was already at an advanced stage, there was little that could be done to improve the design.

On 23 Sep 2011, I conducted an introductory talk about butterflies at the Tampines-Changkat Community Centre's hall. I was pleasantly surprised at the rather good turnout of about 80 residents and enthusiasts, many with their children in tow. There to grace the occasion, was the MP for Tampines-Changkat, Ms Irene Ng, and her husband, Graham Berry.

The attentive crowd was entertained by the many new facets about butterflies that they weren't aware of. And they also learnt not to kill off the 'ugly-looking' caterpillars that would one day turn into beautiful butterflies!

At the end of the talk, there were many questions from the residents, and Brian Goh, ButterflyCircle's youngest (but very knowledgeable!) member, sportingly helped to answer some of the questions. He impressed the crowd with his knowledge about butterflies - even at his tender young age!

Before Irene left for another function, she presented me with an autographed copy of her recently-launched book, "The Short Stories and Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam". Of course, I reciprocated her generosity with a copy of my book in return.

For those who did not know, Irene is also a fellow-Penangite. Before joining politics, she was the Senior Political Correspondent of The Straits Times. Irene has won several journalism and writing awards. She is currently the Writer-in-Residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, besides being a Member of Parliament with a very busy schedule!

Upon completion, the Tampines Butterfly Garden was finally launched on 26 Nov 2011. Irene penned a short article on her Facebook page. Prof Edwin Thumboo even wrote a short poem, reproduced here from Irene's FB page :



















Butterflies

Below circling, housing skies
Lovely, delicate patterns glow.
Touch gently, with your eyes,
Then feel radiant colours flow

Into each busy, bustling day,
Enriching all you do, and say

Prof Edwin Thumboo

With help from the National Parks Board, the right balance of host and nectaring plants was selected, and coupled with tender-loving care from a few enthusiasts amongst the Tampines residents, the little enclosure is now teeming with butterflies. Although the netting material of the enclosure is unsuitable for smaller species of butterflies, it does well enough to contain the larger and more showy species.

When I visited it recently, there was quite a decent amount of butterfly activity with the common urban species like the Mottled Emigrant, Common Mormon, Plain Tiger, Autumn Leaf, Common Mime, Great Mormon and Common Grass Yellow flying and feeding on the Lantana and Pagoda Flowers.

There were even a couple of photographers who told us that they came all the way from Toa Payoh after learning about this new Butterfly Garden at Tampines!

I hope that the external areas around the enclosure can be expanded with more plants and walkways so that more butterflies will visit the area, so that visitors can enjoy free-ranging butterflies, and not just those that are flying within the enclosure. It was encouraging to see that many enthusiastic residents of the area were already helping to tend to the plants and also breeding various species of butterflies to release at the Butterfly Garden.

So here we have, thanks to MP Irene Ng, a new community garden for butterflies at Tampines, and for the residents to enjoy the beauty of nature's flying jewels! It will hopefully be another shining example of community gardens within the heartlands that would encourage other constituencies to set up their own butterfly gardens to encourage the conservation of Singapore's butterfly fauna.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Gilbert Quek & Khew SK

A Season for Red, Green and Black!

A Season for Red, Green & Black
ButterflyCircle Wishes One and All a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It's the Chrismas and the holiday season again.  As people from all over the world are preparing for a nice sumptuous dinner, merry-making and spending time with family and friends on Christmas Eve, let's remember to spread a little cheer and love to those who are less privileged or alone. 

 

On the personal front, it has been an extremely busy and challenging year, as my company prepares for an exciting future ahead with a new shareholder.  2011 has been a year of new experiences - both happy and sad, where I bade farewell to long-time colleagues and welcomed new ones.  The year ahead will be fraught with challenges and new relationships, but one which I look forward optimistically to.  It will be a time for great change and many personal quests. 

 

I am also glad that ButterflyCircle has had many new and capable members joining us and taking the high-quality photography and research work to newer heights.  The spirit of sharing and camaraderie has never been stronger, and we even have active and knowledgeable junior and senior members coming on board with us. 

 

We look forward to many new discoveries for Singapore in 2012, many of which are already under preparation for addition to the Singapore checklist after final scientific validation by a few experts.  I am optimistic that the Singapore butterfly checklist will reach 310 species by the end of the new year! 

 

ButteflyCircle would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members and friends from around the world a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012!  May our Beloved Flying Jewels continue to survive and thrive on our lil' island in the sun! 

 

Note on Photo : A shot of Singapore's little 'red spitfire', the Common Red Flash (Rapala iarbus iarbus) sunbathing on a blade of grass in the nature reserves.  The little fast-flying butterfly is very local in distribution but can be common in the special locations where they are found.  Males tend to dog-fight in the late hours of the day and stop with their wings spread open as in the photo, showing their attractive crimson uppersides.