Inaugural Butterfly Spotting Trip - 9 January 2021

This was my maiden field trip strictly just for butterfly. Three of us set out at about 9.15am in a slightly overcast looking sky. (note: usually butterflies don't come out very early in the morning so there is no need to venture out so early like some birders do). Destination was a nearby forest in Hulu Langat, Selangor, West Peninsular Malaysia. All in all we spotted close to 25 species/sub species of butterflies (i.e including skippers). I scored two lifer butterflies myself on this trip. Here are some of their photos.

      Yellow Glassy Tiger (Parantica aspasia)

                                                         (showing its upper wing patterns)

 Yellow Glassy Tiger (Parantica aspasia)

   (showing its under wing patterns which is quite similar as its upper wings albeit less intense in color)

Club Silverline (Spindasis syama)

Quite a common forest edge butterfly

My fist lifer

Purple-streaked Catseye (Coelites euptychioides)

Despite coming out in the open, it still looks quite dark overall.

More often than not you will only see a flash of bright blue thing flying across the jungle trail.

My second lifer albeit a blurry one

I think it could be a Zebra Ringlet (Ragadia critolaus). It was seen at the same trail as the above 'Catseye'.

Dark Blue Jungle Glory (Thaumantis klugius)

It was also seen inside the dark gloomy trail as the above butterflies.

Banded Tree-Brown (Lethe confusa)

This tree-brown was seen foraging on a wet forest floor.

Common Three-Ring (Ypthima horsfieldii)

I think the above skipper could be a 'Rice Swift' (Borbo cinnara)

Correction: the above skipper is actually a 'Contiguous Swift' (Polytremis lubricans)

                                            Chestnut Bob (Iambrix salsala)

                   

                                                        Common Faun (Faunis canens)

                                                  Lesser Darkwing (Allotinus unicolor)

                                                                    To be identified blue

(note: the above butterfly could be 'Poritia philota philota' (Malayan Gem). Thanks to Monsieur Liew.

                                    This could be a Chocolate Demon (Ancistroides nigrita)

I think the above skipper could be a 'Purple Tufted Lancer' (Isma protoclea)

Correction: the above skipper is actually a 'Malay Forest Bob' (Scobura phiditia)

Status: Rare

Merci beaucoup Monsieur Liew !

I believe the hobby of butterfly watching / butterfly spotting is going to be a popular sport in the near future in this region. With that there should also be more field trips organised in the future. Fingers crossed.