SP forest walk

This morning, I decided to venture to a small forest patch near Singapore Polytechnic. Fiona kindly accompanied me for this trip.


I have always been fascinated with this row of bougainvilla plants (Bougainvilla sp.). More commonly known as shrubs, these plants can actually climb quite high, over 5 meters in this instance! The tree it was leaning on is the paper bark tree, Eucalyptus sp.


Beneath the tree is the introduced weed (Hemigraphis primulifolia) that has virtually invaded every grassland here since its introduction in 1980s. It seemed to fare especially well under shade.


The sandpaper vine (Tetracera indica), named due to their rough stem, has their dried fruit split opened, exposing the seeds inside.


The Simpoh Air (Dillenia suffruticosa) is said to have deep roots to tap on underground water sources, and people used them to mark locations for digging wells.


The wild cinnamon (Cinnamomum iners) is a common roadside tree planted as noise screens as its foliage extend throughout its trunk.


The yellow mimosa (Neptunia sp.) were flowering so beautifully that I decided to use it as my new banner!


Fiona spotted a pair of moths (Lamprosema tampiusalis) mating!


We spotted a fly (Order: Diptera) with an interesting pair of patterned wing.


There were also a lot of assassin bugs around.


A beautiful geometrid moth (Triminda aventiaria) which seems to be quite common around this area.

The shiny long-legged fly (Family: Dolichopodidae) is a predatory insect that feeds on other small invertebrates.


There was a small river which was enclosed to form a pond and some stone steps allowed us to cross over to the opposite bank, where the trail finally ends and we had to head back.


There were definitely more animals we saw than what I had posted here. Unfortunately, I did not take that many pictures today, but it was a nice trip nevertheless :)

Blue Helen squirting

As described during my previous post, heres the video of the Blue Helen butterfly squirting.

Here is the side view of the butterfly with its proboscis extended.

Update >> Consult Dr David Lohman today. He described this phenomenon as "puddling", a process where by the butterfly suck up water, filters off the salt and minerals and squirts out the excess water which it drinks. Normally it is the male which does this, as the nutrients are required to make pheromones and sperms. He also told me that people use animal urine and sometimes even their own to attract these butterflies to puddle together!

Morning Walk at Central Catchment

This morning, me and daniel went for a morning walk at Central Catchment. We had a wonderful time photographing little tiny critters in the forest.

We were first greeted by a male crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja), which can be identified by its flaming red head.

This insect may look like a moth but it is actually a treehopper (Family: Ricaniidae) which has piercing mouthparts for sucking plant sap.


I spotted a handsome spider while Daniel was taking a photo of our native ixora (Ixora congesta). Is this a lynx or crab spider?


Besides butterflies and moths, skippers are also belong to the order of lepidoptera. This is probably a grass skipper (Subfamily: Hesperiinae) and they often held the fore and hind wings at different angles while at rest.


A stlit legged fly (family: Micropezidae) holding up and waving its two conspiciously marked front pair of legs like a pair of antennae. This behavior is said to be a mimicry of wasps.


Probably Gesonia obeditalis, this is a very tiny moth that can be even found on our urban grasspatches.


While taking photo of a moth, I heard a knocking sound echoing nearby. Daniel suggested a woodpecker and indeed, we saw a Banded Woodpecker (Picus miniaceus) working hard knocking on a dead tree looking for worms.


A copper-cheeked frog (Rana chalconota) is one of the most common native frog in Singapore.


The most bizzare encounter we had today is this swallowtail butterfly, probably the Blue Helen (Papilio prexaspes prexaspes). It was squirting some liquid and unperturbed while we inched nearer to take some pictures and videos. What liquid is it ejecting?