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Butterflies from up North
I took a short break to visit my parents in Penang. Unlike previous trips, I didn't make the usual 'pilgrimage' to the Penang Butt Farm, opting instead to visit some of my old haunts where I used to go when I was in school.
The weather didn't cooperate much though, and was very much like Singapore's cloudy and wet weather. ;P
However, when there were short stretches of sunshine, there was promising butt activities around.
The best area was at the PBG's formal garden where there was a trellis covered with blooming Bauhinia flowers. This is the same species as the one we have around the pond at AH. However, that is where the similarity ends. Around the PBG's Bauhinia, there were so many butts flying around that I was kept busy trying to nail flying butts. As I was travelling light with only my D80 and 70-180mm micro zoom, it was a lot more challenging to shoot them. :sweat:
Here are some of the more presentable ones that we don't see here down south (with the exception of the Grey Pansy) :
Common Clubtail - The larger of the two Clubtail species which was fluttering around the flowers and occasionally stopping to feed. It is closely related to our Common Rose, and you can imagine how difficult it is to shoot them when they fly almost non-stop. BTW, the Common Rose was also around, but I didn't bother to chase them of course.
Lemon Pansy - seems to be getting as common as our Chocolate Pansy over here down south. Quite a few were around and feeding on Lantana blossoms.
Batwing - this one is related to the other species, Malayan Batwing. Also very active and flying non stop and chasing the Common Birdwings which were also flying around. This species is distasteful to birds as is 'displayed' by the red body warning colouration, and the female Great Mormon f-butlerianus mimics it for protection. This was shot at 1/2000s against the overcast sky and I managed to just freeze it as it took off after feeding.
Staff Sergeant - this one was as skittish as our Colour Sergeant, to which it is related. But like its cousin, it comes back and perches on some of its favourite stops.
Grey Pansy - also common, much more than in Singapore. There were quite a few of them and they behaved like the Great Eggfly, 'attacking' any flying object that comes within their range.
Yellow Bodied Clubtail - the smaller of the two Clubtails. One of those rare ones that I've seen in the wild with both tails intact. Very hard to get a shot of it, as the forewings are always fluttering (like many Papilioninae species) even when it stops to feed.
