The Common Caerulean Butterfly.

The photos shows a common local butterfly we encounter everyday and can be found in abundance if you pay attention to your surroundings especially if you live in an area where there is a lot of greenery. Small in size and always active, taking a snap shot is quite a challenge.

Common Caerulean (Jamides Celeno Aelianus)

The Common Caerulean is widely distributed locally and often found at the edges of the nature reserves, flying around shrubs and grasses a few feet from the ground. It has a bright metallic blue on the upper side with buff-grey undersides.

They are so common, most of the time we don’t really even bother to take a closer look. When seen up close, I actually find them quite attractive.

Sri Jada Muneesvarar Hindu Temple’s wild boars.

I was told of an unusual happening in a local Hindu temple every evening without fail and as usual, curiosity got the better of me and off I went to see for myself. For those familiar with Taiping, the temple is located behind Tesco Hypermarket, where there is still a secondary jungle not ear marked for development yet.





As I waited for the wild boars to appear as promised by the caretaker usually between 7.30 to 8.30 pm, a crowd started to appear to witness the event. More and more people were making its way in till most of the temple’s compound was filled with cars.
At about 8.10 pm, a lone wild boar sheepishly appears, followed by another a few minutes later. Eventually I saw about 7 or 8 of various sizes feeding on bread crumbs given by the crowd. The wild boars must have learned from experience that this is an easier way to get its food.





No flashlights was allowed, so the photos taken at the later part of the evening did not turn up too well





Rumour has it that if you manage to touch one of them during feeding, you will be blessed with good fortune but I think a more down to earth approach in attaining good fortune, would be more realistic.

Butterflies I see.

I often see butterflies during my exercise excursions in the wilderness while performing my ongoing effort to keep off my ever increasing waistline and curiosity got the better of me the last few months and I have been taking photos of butterflies whenever I find one that is willing to have its photo taken. It certainly has made my tiring and monotonous walks much more interesting and rewarding.

Banded Swallow Tail (Papilio demolion)

Grand Imperial (Neocheritra amrita)

It is not an easy task, believe me, often times I find them more likely to flutter around than willing to stay stationary for me. But when the opportunity occurs, I start shooting, the simplicity and convenience of digital photography is amazing.

Banded Demon (Notocrypta paralysos varians)

Grey Pansy (Junonia atlites)

It is beginning to get more and more interesting by the day, more so when I realized that some of the species I had the privilege of encountering, is actually said to be rare.
Once a satisfactory photo is taken, I would attempt to identify them from materials available in the internet.

Lance Sergeant (Athyma pravara helma)

Cabbage White (Pieris canidia malayica)

Banded Demon (Notocrypta paralysos) ?? ???

There is one website that I find immensely helpful in this aspect, published as a guideline for identification of butterflies in Singapore ( http://www.geocities.com/hexaglider/ ) it appears we do share a fair amount of identical species across the causeway.