Color Sergeant

A butterfly with a military rank, observe the three stripes spread across the wings and you will understand why.

Apparently the more common ones we often see are the males with white stripes. The females have wings that are marked with broad orange-brown stripes.

Some excellent specimens I came across.

 

Skippers (Taractrocera Archias Quinta)

Skippers look like moths but are actually butterflies, compare with the normal butterflies we often see, they have bigger eyes with thicker thorax and small short wings.
The example shown is a species found in Malaysia.

Skippers get their name due to their “skipping” flight, darting or skipping from place to place.

Lebadea Martha Malayana (Knight)

Photo was taken on a hot sunny afternoon with a willing subject in an open forest.
I notice butterflies generally like to sun them selves when there is an opportunity.
This is not the first time I got a few shot of a Knight butterfly but this time the subjects was truly cooperative and the lighting condition was also excellent.

Another thing I observe is that there is always an abundance of a certain species at a certain time, meaning if you see a certain type of butterfly, chances are you will see quite a few of them flying around in the same location. I am not able to explain this observation but that is what I notice.

The Banded Swallowtail (Papilio demolion)

A real active fast flying butterfly, I often see it flying around flower to flower rarely taking a rest, taking a photo of it is challenging, I was lucky today, it is not often I can find one remaining stationary long enough for me to take a few photos.

Swallowtails are from the family Papilionidae, as the name suggests this particular species has tails that resembles tails swallow.

This specimen appears to be a male with its brownish black upper side

Malaysia’s Butterfly – The Yellow Archduke (Lexias canescens pardalina)

I often see this species in shaded forest areas under tall trees and from what I have read is a forest-dependent species.

It belongs to the genus Lexias which are of large, fast flying butterflies.

The Yellow Archduke with its dark brown and yellow-spotted wings blends in well with the forest floor as it feeds giving it an effective camouflage against predators.


The strong body of the Yellow Archduke is capable of powerful flight, proven when disturbed, taking off rapidly with a few wingbeats.

Malaysia’s Butterfly – Autumn Leaf (Doleschallia bisaltide pratipa)

This butterfly I notice has a very rapid flight normally seen flying solo along forest and not a very good subject for photography but I get lucky sometimes. A rather common species often encountered during a hot sunny afternoon in a heavily forested environment.

It has dots and lines at the hind wings on a brown background with black tipped fore wings, it certainly stands out along the more mundane species I always see flying close by.

Attempting to identify this species was also challenging as comparison with photos of identified Autumn leaf butterfly shows minor differences in wing markings, my conclusion is that it is a sub-species of the Autumn leaf unique to this particular region of the country.

Malaysia’s Butterfly - Horsefield's Baron (Tanaecia iapis puseda)

I find it intriguing and interesting that butterflies like the Horsfield's Baron wing pattern can look so different in their male and female form but than, that is because they are dimorphic. Dimorphism is defined in Wikipedia as the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species.

Female

In the case of the Horsefield’s Baron, the male has a black upper side with a blue border on

the hind wings while the female is greyish brown with luminous shadings of light bright blue. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference from another species especially for the female, as it looks almost similar to the Malay Viscount which has almost the same colors and markings on the wings.

Male

This species is quite common as I come across them quite often on bright sunny days, the males being the more often encountered ones.

Malaysia’s Butterfly - The Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus malayanus)

A species commonly seen in areas where lime tree or citrus plants are found growing in the wild or cultivated, comes as no surprise as the food plant of the caterpillar is the lime tree and Citrus plant leaves, so much so it is regarded as a pest where these citrus plants are cultivated. With a fast erratic flight it is a capable flyer.

The butterfly has two unique and distinct round spot at the hind wing complimented with flowery yellow wing markings on the upper sides.
I have observed that the lime butterfly are usually not active in the early morning, preferring to perched with its wing wide open till it becomes warmer, than it becomes hyperactive, fluttering around stopping only briefly to feed on flower nectar with its long proboscis.

The phenomenon that the Lime Butterfly appears to be more common than normal during the Lunar New Year celebrations, due to the traditional practice of keeping Citrus plants with the orange fruits ripened, as symbols of wealth and prosperity during the celebration has some truth in it. I seem to encounter more lime butterflies during this period.

Malaysia’s Butterfly - The Common Birdwing (Troides Helana Cerberus)

The Common Birdwing is a big butterfly with a wing span of up to 15 cm, with such a big wing span it can fly at great heights and distances to match. From a distance it would appear to fly like a bird where I supposed is where it got its common name.

Belonging to the Papilionidae species, it has a typical fluttering movement with its forewings whilst its hind wings are kept almost stationary common to the species when feeding on flowers, its favorites are the Pagoda Flower (Cleredendron). Very rarely seen in cities, it is basically a jungle butterfly.

As with most insects, there is a high likely hood that it will be sighted near its host plant, Aristolochia acuminata and Aristolochia tagala, both are jungle vines where as a caterpillar it was feeding on. This type of vine contains toxin and the birdwing has evolved to use it to its advantage as a defense mechanism, using the toxin present in the vine and storing them in the fleshy orange-red spines on their backs without harmful effects to itself. Bright color markings on the wings and the orange-red spines on the back serves as a warning to predators that they are toxic and distasteful. If by mistake or ignorance it is attacked, the predator will learn not to make the same mistake twice.
From what I have read, the female can locate the correct plants with chemical receptors on her forelegs to differentiate various leaves, giving them the ability to “taste” the leaves with her legs.

With its majestic size and brightly colored wing markings, it is highly sought after by collectors, fortunately it is listed as an endangered butterfly species under CITES - The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and are protected in Malaysia.

Meaning, in real life you can most probably buy them from souvenir shops locally but are not allowed to take it out of the country due to the law prohibiting export of endangered species.

Malaysia’s Butterflies – The Glassy Tigers

An attractive butterfly with black bars segmenting bright yellow or light blue with shades of white on sections of the wings, depending on the species, makes it delightful to watch and photograph. I believe it is also frequently used in advertisement material due to its attractive markings, pay attention next time if a butterfly is featured, chances are it is a Glassy Tiger.
Frequently sighted in forested areas, it flies slowly and glides gracefully. I have read there are three species of the Glassy Tigers in Malaysia, the less common being the Dark Glassy Tiger, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to come across a specimen of the Dark Glassy Tiger.

Yellow Glassy Tiger - (Parantica aspasia)





This species of butterfly is toxic and distasteful to predators, which explains the colors, markings and other species mimicking them. The photos shown here are taken from a cemetery that is often deserted in a well forested area. I have often observed that if you spot a Yellow Glassy Tiger, the chance of sighting a Blue Glassy Tiger nearby is very high, it appears to share the same habitat and most probably the same preferred food.

Blue Glassy Tiger – (Ideopsis vulgaris macrina)






Capturing a photo with its wing opened is a challenge as it normally hangs upside down with the wings folded shut when at rest. An excellent time on catching these Glassy Tigers fluttering around seem to be just before noon in a lightly shaded area with lush vegetation on a dry sunny day.

Dark Glassy Tiger – (Parantica agleoides agleoides)




The most uncommon of Glassy Tigers, the black segments on the wings are really prominent and dark. Surprisingly, I find this particular species have a higher tendency to open up its wing during perching.

Malaysia’s Butterflies – The Eggfly (Hypolimnas)

The Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas Bolina Bolina)


One of the species I find particularly attractive with its bright blue and white spot markings on the wing, like most Eggfly species it is aggressive and territorial not hesitating to chase away any intruders that fly past. There are two subspecies, the other subspecies being the Jacintha Eggfly (H. bolina jacintha). This species of butterflies are also sometimes referred to as brush footed butterflies due to their brush like appendages on their first pair of legs, and only the other two pairs of legs at the back are used for walking.



It’s behavior is not unlike the Jacintha Eggfly, highly territorial, and often has a favorite place to perch. This species is reported to have strong wings, and is capable of migratory flights.

The Malayan Eggfly (Hypolimnas Anomala Anomala)

I observed the Malayan Eggfly to be territorial and often chase away other butterflies nearby and have the behavior of always returning to its favorite perch, there are times where I will find the same specimen flying and perching in the same location even after a week. It gave me the opportunity to test out what was documented by other butterfly enthusiast that it will even try to chase away a small piece of paper if you threw it at their direction. I have confirmed that they do react that way.


An excellent subject to photograph as it will remain stationary for long periods of time once it finds its favorite spot, even disturbing the surroundings will not chase it away for long. It is a fairly common butterfly from where I live as I encounter this species quite often.


There are also some specimens I observe, that does not have the blue metallic hue on the upper parts of the forewing.

The Jacintha Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina jacintha)

The blue sheen on the forewings reflecting the sun on a sunny day does make it looks attractive.
Not to be confused with the blue spotted crow (Euploea midamus chloe) the markings are almost similar. Do note that there are articles I read that identifies this as a female Great Eggfly, as I am not an entomologist by training I am not sure who is correct.

With some female species having mimicking abilities of other species, it does get difficult to positively identify some of them. On why mimicking of another species is done, it is to fool predators that they belong to species that are toxic and therefore are less likely to be attack or seen as a potential meal.