A Butterfly Heaven - April 2022

In this little location near a cave in Perak, it hides a "treasure" full of butterflies. This site alone hosted almost 20+ species of butterflies or maybe even more.

If you travel from KL towards north, you will see this familiar hill. This is where the butterfly heaven is located. Here are some of the butterflies which I have manage photographed in just half a day spent at the site.

Let me start with this skipper.

This skipper is a "Restricted Demon" (Notocrypta curvifascia corinda)

Next - the above is a "Dark Yellow-banded Flat" which scientific name sounds like this Celaenorrhinus aurivittata (Moore). If you are not aware, the word "Tata" in Indian means grandfather :-)

This butterfly can be a bit tricky because it has a few closely related subspecies. However the above I believe is a "Wavy Maplet" (Chersonesia intermedia intermedia).

Here is its side view.

Looks a bit like the Malayan Punchinello. But this one is much smaller and more orangey in color.

Here is another tricky butterfly which has a few mimicries. 

At a glance you might think it is a "Papilio", or perhaps an "Elymnias" but this is a Malayan Eggfly (Hypolimnas anomala anomala)

A side view of a female Malayan Eggfly

Here is the frontal view

This place hosted a good number of skippers. Here are a few more seen.

This is a "Bush Hopper" (Ampittia dioscorides camertes)

The above is a "Contiguous Swift" (Polytremis lubricans lubricans)

This skipper raised many question marks but I hypothesis it as an Isma damocles (Bright Long-spot flitter).

This is most likely a "Pugnacious Lancer" (Pemara pugnans)

Here is a butterfly which has not many colours.

Naturally it was called a "Black Prince" (Rohana parisatis siamesis)

Looks like its underside has more patterns than its upperside.

This is a female Euploea mulciber mulciber (Striped Blue Crow). So lucky to see this one because a female Striped Blue Crow is uncommon in the field.

In the open areas, you can also see a few nice butterflies.

This one is a Malaysian Albatross (Saletara liberia distanti)

When it is flying, it resembles a bit like a Chocolate Albatross from the top.

 

The Banded Angle (Odontoptilum pygela pygela)

This is a rather uncommon flat which you can only find in the forest edges.

The Common Snowflat (Tagiades japetus atticus)

Besides the uncommon butterflies, there are also some common ones. 

This Dark Grass Brown (Orsotriaena medua cinere/ medus) photo was taken under a shade hence its very dark colour which looks almost black.

Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis vulgaris macrina)

Another one taken from under a shady tree.

This one on the other hand is called a Dark Glassy Tiger (Parantica agleoides agleoides)

Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis lampa) 

Ciliate Blue (Anthene emolus goberus)

Even with only half of its wings opened, it was still a beauty to behold.

Burmese Cerulean (Jamides philatus subditus)

This is also another beauty.

I have seen "Wizard" a few times before but apparently they are considered an uncommon butterfly in the literature. They can only be seen in the forest regions though.

The Wizard (Rhinopalpa polynice eudoxia)

Some people would prefer to look at its upperside.

Here it is again. This time on another butterfly shooter's shoe. Mr Liew came all the way from Penang and I think he saw more butterflies on that day cause he stayed back a bit longer than me.

Tufted Jungle King (Thauria aliris pseudaliris)

Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra tinctoria)

Three is a company

Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe hecabe)

Lesser Darkwing (Allotinus unicolor unicolor)

This one looks like a worn out Dark Brand Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus macromalayana)

Like most people would say, save the best for the last. This unique butterfly is the best of the lot.

White Dragontail (Lamproptera curius curius)

Its antenna is curved backwards as you can see from the above photo.

It also has a unique flight pattern which resemble like a helicopter.

I left for home a happy person after finally seen this beauty.

NOTE: although this place has produced many species of butterflies but my second trip there only scored 5 species due to a slight drizzle. So it is always a good to check with the weather man before embarking your journey to this lovely site. But one thing for sure, I will certainly return to this place whenever I can.