Greetings,

I am newbie here on the Butterflycircle Forum. In June, my wife and I visited Malaysia. I have been there a number of times for birding but this was my wife’s first trip. We stayed in KL for a few days and then headed up to the lovely Fraser’s Hill. After that, my wife returned to Australia and I continued on to Taman Negara for another week. Taman Negara with its beautiful rainforest is my favourite of all national parks anywhere in the world. The infrastructure is excellent and the diversity of about everything is extreme. This was my fourth visit to the park.

Before this trip, I did a fair bit of preparation on the web and came across this website and other amazing butterfly websites. I have always enjoyed butterflies but your websites (this site, Nature Singapore, Delias, Goh’s, ...) really rekindled my interest in these creatures. Instead of birds or reptiles, I spent most of my time on this trip searching for and photographing butterflies.

I have travelled a fair amount in my life and I cannot remember anyplace that has such a diversity or abundance of butterflies as Taman Negara. It was just amazing to visit a sand bar along the Tahan River around mid-day and see the mixed species flocks of puddling butterflies. I photographed more than 90 species at Taman Negara and saw many others that were not cooperative for photos.

I don’t have a copy of BMP so have relied on the websites to try and identify what I have encountered. I will post photos of these along with what I think to be their names. I would be very grateful for help with the identifications. Also, please point out what characteristics should be examined to confirm an identity. Thanks for your help!


MetalMarks -- Riodinidae

I saw some of these on earlier trips to Taman Negara so was very happy to bump into them again. I think that these are some of the prettiest butterflies in the rainforest.

Orange Harlequin (Taxila haquinus)





Malay Red Harlequin (Paralaxita damajanti)





White-banded Judy (Abisara neophron) -- I only saw this butterfly once at Taman Negara. It was much more common up in the mountains at Fraser's Hill.



Zemeros emesoides or Zemeros flegyas? I think the former but I am not certain. This butterfly was sunning at the first lookout of Bukit Teresik.



Regards,
David