A Little Trail Revisited

It has certainly been quite a while since I last went walking on a trail, spend a few hours feasting my eyes on dragonflies, butterflies, insects, etc., and getting myself immersed in nature!  

Today, the opportunity for that came about.

Just the usual common species encountered but it was great to have a little rendezvous with some of my favourite subjects out there.   So, here's a little bit of everything to keep the balance!

Heliocypha biforata

 

Trithemis festiva

Vestalis sp.

Another Vestalis sp.

Robber Fly

   

A close up of the Robber fly

Pantala flavescens

Orthetrum sabina

Tholymis tillarga

 A dragonfly exuvia

A fresh Cicada exoskeleton.  

There were lots of these everywhere!

Sun Skink

The black Hospitalitermes Termites!

 

The Fluffy Tit 

And could this be the The Knight (Lebadea Martha)? 

One of the species of grasshoppers, but which is this?

Water Skater

Pics Of The Week - Butterflies & A Moth!

These are some of the butterflies and a moth spotted during the week!
Have not put a name to all of them as yet.....

A tiny, attractive 'black-and-white' butterfly on the muddy trail.
Caleta roxus pothus, the Straight Pierrot, of the Lycaeninae family.

Mycalesis mineus, the White-Banded Bush Brown, came visiting and was found perched on the balcony on one of the days when I got home.

A white moth (?) hidden among the grasses.

Could this be of the Arhopala species?  A Metallic Oakblue?
Or the Virachola species?  The Indigo Flash?
I still think it's neither of them!

Papilio helenus, the Red Helen, found in Malaysia only.

Certainly hope those (Japanese) butterfly catchers that I have been bumping into don't catch these to 'extinction' in Langkawi.
I certainly feel it is wrong of them to come here for a holiday with the main objective of catching our butterflies. 
Very wrong indeed.

LEAVE OUR BUTTERFLIES ALONE !!!

Love Is In The Air...

We often complain the day is too hot.  Until it starts raining endlessly for days and days.  And then we start wishing the sun would come out.

Soon, it is back to square one.  It is a vicious cycle.

When will we stop complaining?  When will we start being grateful for everything that we do have, be thankful for a good night's sleep and greet each new day with a smile?

Anyway, the sun came out early this morning.  And a lot of people took the opportunity to get out there and enjoy the day, including myself.

All those algal blooms in those dammed streams have been washed away and the streams are flowing as clearly as it should be.  The water levels are up in those ponds.  And a lot of creatures are rejoicing. 

Who wouldn't?

Nature reigns!

Anyway, I came across a few butterfly catchers, a "hunter" with a heavy pack on his back and a pack of faithful dogs at his heels, and many, many more.
One of the butterfly catchers, the wife, is seen here taking a lunch break, looks like a husband-and-wife team... and look at that big net.  They don't look like locals and there was a "Kasina" rented car in the parking lot as well.  I certainly hope they don't catch all our butterflies to extinction.  Unfortunately, there is nothing much to stop them and my presence did not deter them... quite unlike the Japanese student cum butterfly catcher several weeks ago who did a 180 degree turn each time wchinner walked up towards him.  Frankly, it was quite hilarious!



And this "hunter", or poacher?  ...with his pack of dogs.  A large monitor lizard practically sprinted and clambered up a tree at great speed to get away from those dogs.  Quite a scene... though only recorded in my mind's eye and not on film.

That lizard's heart would have been pumping and racing mad.  But... beautiful dogs!  These dogs had a quick dip in the stream too.  Ahhh... those picnickers taking a dip and soaping themselves downstream unaware of what's upstream... I had a wicked thought!

These grasshoppers were certainly celebrating too!

And here's a Five-bar Swordtail Butterfly that got away...

Also, I think I might have another dragonfly to add to my checklist for Langkawi. 

Yippee!

The Great Mormon

It's taken quite a few trials on several excursions to finally get a butterfly photo like this...  just about right.

This butterfly, Papilio memnon or The Great Mormon, is always just fluttering and fluttering and fluttering all over the place in all directions and barely stops even when collecting nectar.

Times like these, I do sometimes wish I have a DSLR with great continuous shooting speed, yet I am not exactly a serious photographer in this sense and certainly won't be keen to lug all the gear everywhere...

Anyway, will still be trying for more pics whenever I get the chance!  After all, it does have a lot to do with timing and being at the right place at the right time!

That's where all the fun is, isn't it?

 

 

Flirty Flighty Creatures

 

In terms of dragonfly sightings, things have been a bit quiet.

Partly because when I was able to go out, the weather hadn't been the greatest in that it was overcast or threatening to rain.  Either that or I would be holed up indoors because it was pouring cats and dogs out there. 

Also, I had recently stubbed my toe on some rock solid structures, twice in that same evening, and my toe had become swollen making walking a bit difficult.  After almost two weeks, the swelling has finally gone down a little and it feels better though I still won't be able to walk properly had I been wearing my walking shoes.  In other words, I have been putting my feet up when I can!

Anyway, when I did get out there, if I do not see too many creatures around, quite often it can be an indication that the rain is coming and this reasoning had seemed quite true on quite a few occasions.

Meantime, I have been seeing a fair bit of butterflies fluttering about in the last few weeks so I had focused on these creatures instead.  Here goes...

 

A Brown Skipper Butterfly (Hesperiidae spp) on the Ageratum whiteweed flowers.

 

The Common Sailor (Neptis hylas)

 

The Blue Pansy (Junonia orithya) on a Tridax daisy

 

An attractive-looking butterfly of the Euthalia spp

 

The Lemon Pansy (Junonia lemonias)

 

The Colour Sergeant (Athyma nefte)

 

The Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus)

 

The Striped Albatross (Appias libythea) that is commonly seen everywhere...

 

Several butterflies feeding on a watermelon skin left by picnickers.  The Palm Kings (Amathusia binghami) in the centre, surrounded by the smaller White-Banded Bush Browns (Mycalesis mineus).

 

 

From Dawn Till Dusk...

Dawn breaks...

 

Going out to sea at dawn.

 

Sunrise!

 

All still and calm in the morning.

 

Still at anchor.

 

A village still in slumber...

 

Rise and shine!

 

Getting an early start and living it up at Cenang Beach...

 

A Grasshopper... thinking about breakfast?

 

A Water Skater on a pond...

 

Another Grasshopper feeding on a ginger flower.

 

A Shield Bug... this guy's got a big honker!

 

Puddling butterflies!

 

A Common Green Frog staying cool in the shade.

 

A Skink basking in the late afternoon sun.

 

And, all too soon... it was dusk!

Of course, there were lots of dragonflies and damselflies in between too. 

Quite a day!

What a day!