Saturday, June 30, 2012

Butterflies of Batu Berangkai Waterfall @ Kampar

Batu Berangkai Waterfall is about 10-min drive from our hotel. On Day 3 (13 June) morning, we requested  our "chauffeur" uncle Lai to bring us there. Once we turned into a narrow paved slip road, we passed by an Orang Asli village, within minutes, we reached the foot of the waterfall. The waterfall must be quite popular with the locals as we bumped into several of them strolling down from the hilltop after they had done their morning workouts. 
The moment we selected our landing area, we noticed a Plain Banded Awl (Hasora vitta vitta) zipping around us. Though it was quite skittish and alert, there was a  moment when it actually stayed on the ground long enough for me to take some quick shots. 
This Maplet butterfly ( Chersonesia rahira rahira) was spotted on a hilltop when we decided to venture higher up the mountain. One additional apical black spot separates this from another look-alike, Chersonesia intemedia which was posted in my previous post.   
This is another shot of the same specimen. 
A long distance shot of a sunbathing Fulvous Pied Flat (Pseudocoladenia dan dhyana).

Another familiar butterfly the Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis vulgaris macrina) didn't really excite me. While waiting for other species to appear, I took one quick shot of it.  
Dr Seow explained that without any sub-apical spot; a very broad white band on the forewing  and together with the wing edges along the apex, costa and termen forming right angles to each other suggest that this might be a female  Notocryota clavata. 
A female Koruthaialos sindu was spottted on a trail parallel to the waterfall and leading to the top of the mountain. I think CH may have a nice upperside shot.
When we were at the waterfall in the early morning, we could see different Birdwing butterflies fluttering past us without stopping - there wasn't anything there to attract them to come close to us.

On our way down the hill, we first met this Yellow Barred (Xanthotaenia busiris busiris) flitting and puddling on the tarred road. 
At one particular location, we encountered quite a few butterflies. One of the Yamflies (Loxura atymns fuconius) was pristine and quite cooperative - allowing us to take a few shots.
Another familiar Lycaenid, the Common Tit (Hypolycaena erylus teatus) was looking for a sweet spot on  the dry ground.  
According to Dr Seow, due to some missing spots, this shot looks more like an aberration of a Arhopala major
A different Arhopala specimen  shot at the same location (likely to be an Arhopala epimuta).

A very skittish and alert Malayan Sunbeam (Curetis santana malayica) kept teasing me - this was the only time I had a closer look at it.
I believe that the river banks would be a better place for us to encounter puddling butterflies but we could not find where it was without intruding into some private houses.

When uncle Lair knew that we wanted to visit the waterfall, he reminded us to be watchful of any sudden change of weather - we were sadden to hear from him that there was a drowning tragedy at this waterfall a few years ago ". (see here).

We had a good time and really enjoyed hunting and shooting butterflies at Kampar - thanks CH for your great accompany and suggestion. We will return to Kampar again or perhaps Gopeng next time. 

Thanks Dr Seow once again for identifying many of the species that I have posted.. 

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