It All Started with an E-mail from UK…

It All Started with an E-mail from UK…

Dear BIG,
I am coming to Singapore on business this week, and
wonder if any of your members would like to come
on a butterfly watching/photography trip with me ........

With best wishes,
David Hudson

Text by Simon Chan Kee Mun
Pictures by Gan Cheong Weei
June 2006

avid Hudson, a 60 year old banking consultant from Great Missenden, UK, is an avid butterfly enthusiast and an experienced nature photographer. He has travelled widely wherever his work takes him. With his old trusted camera by his side, he has gone to more than 40 countries including Malaysia, Peru and East Africa, photographing butterflies in the wild for 30 years. In all that time too he has studied their systematics and distribution, with particular emphasis on the tropics and also found the time to become good friends with John Banks, a renowned butterfly film photographer.

When a rumoured mid-May business trip here turned into a firm possibility, he started surfing the internet for butterfly interest groups in Singapore. Although David has been here a few times beginning from his first tropical excursion way back in 1977 to his last visit which was nearly 20 years ago, he felt he was no longer conversant with the best places to go to for butterfly watching. He figured he will require a keen lepidopterist who is able to recommend good places to visit and who is willing to accompany him on all his walks. Before long he found the BIG website.

In his initial e-mail he introduced himself and mentioned having visited the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, MacRitchie Reservoir and Botanic Gardens. Putting on our thinking caps, Gan and I pondered over the few remaining forested and park areas in Singapore and finally decided on two. These are places where we are certain many butterfly species still exist and are not the ones he has been before. For the first we wanted him to experience the forest species in an awe-inspiring way. Sime Forest was selected over the other Central Catchment Reserves because it was the best ‘performer’ to date with a whopping 63 species recorded on 8th June 2001. For the second we settled for a more urban setting with an artificially created habitat in the form of a butterfly garden. The Alexandra Hospital Butterfly Trail fits that bill to a tee. Saturday 20th May 2006 was set aside for this special event. The day of the walk finally arrived. It started off surprisingly well in spite of incessant rain on the weekdays past. David and I were to meet at the station control of the Clementi MRT station at 9:30 am before proceeding to the taxi stand where Gan was already waiting in his car.

Sime Forest did not disappoint. A total of 62 species were spotted there which included some seasonally abundant species like the Chocolate Albatross (Appias lyncida vasava) and the Banded Yeoman (Cirrochroa orissa orissa). Then there was the single specimen of the very rare Chestnut Angle skipper (Odontoptilum angulatum angulatum). In addition, a group of butterflies puddling on muddy ground near a water pipeline gave David a photographic moment. He managed to capture on film the likes of a Five Bar Swordtail (Pathysa antiphates itamputi), some Blue Jays (Graphium evemon eventus) and a few Chocolate Grass Yellows (Eurema sari sodalis).

Throughout our leisurely but energy-sapping walk, we encountered many of the more common denizens of the forest from the big and showy Papilionidaes to the tiny but brilliantly luminous Lycaenidaes. After what felt like a long march, we were back at where we began, which was the rangers headquarters. By then it was already quarter past two in the afternoon and we were parched and famished. Off we went to Alexandra Hospital for lunch but not without a pit stop at Sembawang Hills Hawker Centre for some cool refreshing sugar cane juice.

Simon, David and Gan at
Sime Forest board walk

David in action

Shooting puddling butterflies

Lebadea martha

Appias lyncida

Curetis santana

Odontoptilum angulatum

Alexandra Hospital Butterfly Trail

The Alexandra Hospital Butterfly Trail is a joint project between the Alexandra Hospital and the Butterfly Interest Group (BIG). The Butterfly Trail was conceived by AH CEO Mr. Liak Teng Lit in 2001 as part of the hospital's plan to provide a conducive healing environment. Since the setup of the butterfly trail, more than 80 species of butterflies have been recorded at Alexandra Hospital.

David at Alexandra Hospital
Butterfly Trail

Troides helena caterpillar

Ideopsis vulgaris

Horaga syrinx

At the Alexandra Hospital canteen, we quickly chowed down our fish and chips and proceeded eagerly to the butterfly trail. What greeted us there were the usual suspects of Blue Glassy Tigers (Ideopsis vulgaris macrina), Dark Glassy Tigers (Parantica agleoides agleoides), Common Palmflies (Elymnias hypermnestra agina), Bush Browns (Mycalesis sp.), Common Mormons (Papilio polytes romulus) and Lime Butterflies (Papilio demoleus malayanus).

While the presence of three magnificent male specimens of the Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) and a lone Common Rose (Pachliopta aristolochiae asteris) fascinated David somewhat, the limelight actually belonged to a single Ambon Onyx (Horaga syrinx maenala) which seemed to have difficulty laying eggs on a pomelo bush. He remarked that the only other place he saw the genus Horaga was in the Philippines. Adding to his delight, a Commander (Moduza procris milonia) made an unexpected appearance and a quick dash up a tall tree. That made our day because this particular sighting added one more species to the list of butterflies encountered at Alexandra Hospital.

All in all, it was an excellent day. The weather held up and many butterfly species were there for the count. David was extremely fortunate to see 84 species in one day and so were we !