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Friday, October 21, 2011

Butterflying in Orchard Road

Last week L and I went for a visit to the butterfly trail created by the NSS along Orchard Road. Really nice to have a butterfly hotspot at a convenient place for amateurs like me to learn more about butterflies.

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Here is a Pygmy Grass Blue feeding on Lantana.

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Plain Tiger feeding on Snake Weed.

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Two mating Common Grass Yellow just under the cover of a Lantana leaf.

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The Giant Milk Weed flowers seem to be a favourite for carpenter bees. Its legs are even covered with pollen!

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I considered myself lucky to get a shot of this fast flyer, the Lemon Emigrant.

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Just outside the Orchard Road Presbyterian Church, a black-naped oriole seemed to be feeding on the fruits of the Royal Palm.

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I was really excited to see a large butterfly fluttering about. This Common Mime rested on this Heliconia flower, allowing me to go close enough to take a beautiful shot.

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We went to search under the leaves of Pseuderanthemum carruthersii for the larvae of the Autumn Leaf. Unfortunately, there was only remains of their empty pupal casts around.

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The Singapore Rhododendron is another plant that the carpenter bees love. I thought this picture really shows how the flower is adapted to be pollinated by carpenter bees, with its stamens almost clasping on the bee so that the pollen can be caught on its body.

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There are two magnificent trees that we saw along the way. One is this Ficus elastica just outside the National Museum.

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The other was this huge Artocarpus elasticus with beautiful buttress roots.

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We also took a visit to the National Museum to have a glimpse of William Farquhar’s collection of water colour paintings on Singapore’s natural history.

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Turning back to the shopping district of Orchard Road, I had a pleasant surprise when I found a dense cover of nationally threatened Geophila repens in Istana Park.

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Some of you might have watched the news of this public speed dating in Orchard Central. I was there! As an on-looker of course~ :)

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