Butterflies of Rice Fields - Dec 2015

Rice Fields are usually open areas with vast flat terrains. From the month of November to December, the rice fields in Peninsular Malaysia are usually ready to be harvested and the scenery can be spectacular. Despite the weather which can be really hot around the rice fields, i have found several butterflies which can withstand such extreme weather.

Common Evening Brown

This 'Evening Brown' is the wet weather morph which coincide with the current monsoon season.

Grey Pansy

Not a very sharp photo but this Great Pansy (Junonia atlites) is reported to have only one morph through out its range.

Tawny Coster

Just like the above Grey Pansy, this Tawny Coster also has no subspecies through out its range as reported by the experts.

After spending some time at the rice fields, i moved to a more shady location near the forest edge. 

Painted Jezebel

Most Jezebels are colorful and can be easily seen.

This could be a common crow or according to Dr Kirton's field guide, it should be a "Spotted Black Crow" (Euploea crameri)

'Common Four Ring' butterflies are quite common and can be easily found in your gardens.

Great Egg Fly

The above 'Great Egg Fly' can be found at your kampung and even your garden at times.

Have a Great Year 2016 !

Backyard Butterflies - Nov 2015

Sometimes your backyard can also produced many varieties of butterflies. Recently i had a short morning stroll at my 'backyard' and here are some of its butterflies. Most of them were common though.

Psolos fuligo

Its common name is "Brown Bob" and this is how its looks under the bright warm sun. Good morning Bob !

This is how it looks like under the shade.

....and this is how it looks like when sun bathing.

Zeuxidia amethystus

Hiding in the thick foliage was this butterfly which common name is : "Saturn". Apparently it is rarely seen but it certainly does not seem like it came from a faraway star nor has it shown any demonic characteristics.

I believe this butterfly looks more like a "Long Brand Bush Brown" (Mycalesis visala phamis) rather than a "Mottled Bush-Brown" (M. janardana). There were lots of them.

This is how its upper wings would look like. Pretty drab colors but nevertheless it was quite interesting to watch this butterfly as well.

I believe this was one of its friends too - probably a "Orsotriaena medus cinerea" (Dark Grass Brown)?

Commander (Moduza procris)

Everything will look nice under the sun.

Harlequin (Taxila haquinus)

I believe this is a female Harlequin

This is how its upper wing would look like.

Archduke

I believe this butterfly is a female Malayan Viscount

Common Faun (Faunis canens)

It kept itself to the dark forest ground so i decided to have some flashlight on it.

Butterfly watching or what i termed as "Butterflying" is certainly another interesting hobby you can pick up.

Punchinello - Zemeros flegyas

The name "Punchinello" certainly sound a bit spanish but this butterfly apparently are only common in this region - i.e South East Asia. It is described as having dark orange brown color and has a wet and dry season form. I have recently came across an individual which was quite accommodating in having its photos taken. Here are some of its photos:

Zameros emesoides

From the look of the above photo it would appear that this butterfly is displaying its dry season form which is supposedly darker than its wet season color.

This butterfly has apparently many subspecies. You can go a level higher by trying to identify which subspecies it belongs to but for me i will just leave the task to the entomologist or lepidopterist.

On its behavior, this butterfly tends to move quite often when feeding on the nutrients from the flowers. This has allowed an excellent 360 degree view of its entire anatomy.

For whatever reasons it may be, this butterfly was seen been chased around by several Ypthima namely 3 rings and 5 rings. I believe it could have been more of a territorial issue rather than a hunter and prey thingy. 

Although it is quite a small butterfly at just 2.1cm, it can certainly make a strong impression or should i say "punch" if ever you have the chance to see one.

Butterflies are like Jewels of the Forest and Gardens !