# Fraser's Hill, Malaysia, July 2011



## moloch (Jul 11, 2011)

My wife and I have just returned from a 12 day visit to the beautiful Fraser's Hill.  Fraser's Hill is located in the mountains about 100 kms north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  It is a lovely place and it is a great place for birds and insects.  I posted a report from a trip last year at this link:  http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=185164

This year, the forest was dry.  The hill had a poor rainy season but it was grey most days so not as good for butterflies as I had hoped.  I photographed about 85 species and saw another 30 or so but numbers were down from last year.  I worked mostly the Jeriau Falls area, about 10 minutes down the hill from the town centre, and a couple of falls at lower elevations northeast of the Gap.  The later areas were about a 30 minute drive from the hill.

Here are a few habitat shots of the hill:

















Palms here often had quite a different shape to those that I see in Australia.







Lantana thickets were good for butterflies:







Sandy area near Jeriau Falls.  I used a shrimp paste solution here to attract butterflies.  It worked well and brought in many puddling species.

















Forest at lower elevations near the Gap.  The area was often misty in the early morning.












I found the burrows of the primitive trap door spiders and went out at night to see these creatures.  Last year, Zoltan identified these for me as _Liphistius malayanus_.  I had an amazing experience with one of these at night.  I passed a small stick across the burrow and the spider just exploded out and bit the stick with considerable force. 












They are large spiders and remind me a little of hermit crabs when out of their shells.  The abdomen is so strange with visible plates.












This spider was about a meter away and seemed to be watching the action.







Moths were scarce this year.  I did see rhino beetles most nights.












... more later.


----------



## patotxiki (Jul 12, 2011)

Very nice pictures 
I love Liphistius sp.


----------



## tarantulagirl10 (Jul 12, 2011)

Very cool pictures!


----------



## zonbonzovi (Jul 12, 2011)

Long time no see, Moloch!  Definitely on the long list of places to visit.  Cool to see the Liphistus in situ & stags never get boring.


----------



## moloch (Aug 10, 2011)

Thanks, all.

Snakes were hard to come by and I only found two live and one dead on the hill.  The most impressive was the Malayan Rat Snake (_Elaphe flavolineata_).  Wow, what a creature!  I blocked it from crawling off the road one morning and it immediately flattened its neck, lifted into coils and attacked.  I stood still expecting this to be a bluff.  I was wrong and it shot up to me and bit my leg.  I caught it and then moved it to a more open location for photos.  Unfortunately, it settled fast so most of my shots were when it was only in a "half-hostile" emotional state.



























I found this injured White-spotted Cat Snake (_Boiga drapiezii_) a little below the Gap.  It was still alive but it had been hit by a car and was mortally injured.  Its form was so much like _Imantodes_ in the neotropics.  I did not recognize it as a _Boiga_ at all until I looked through the photo guide.

















The third snake that I found was a flattened Malayan Banded Wolf Snake (_Lycodon subcinctus_).  It was too damaged for photos.  I would have been very wary about touching it at night since it looked much like a krait.



Geckos included what I think to be a Banded Slender-toed Gecko (_Cyrtodactylus pulchellus_).  These were large, fast-running geckos that usually would race off the road before I could get back to them for photos.

















During the day, I saw several species of skinks but I don't have photos this year.


I found a few tarantula burrows along road cuts.  These tarantulas were large with red legs and a navy blue body ... quite colourful.  I was able to tempt this one to the edge of its burrow but it would not come all the way into the open.









Primates were numerous around Fraser's Hill.  Long-tailed Macaques were the most common but this year, for the first time, I saw several troops of Pig-tailed Macaques.  Here are a couple that I photographed along the road.  I had to shot from inside the car since they always ran if I poked the camera out the window.












Dusky Leaf Monkeys were also fairly common.












Here are shots of the butterflies.  I will start with the Pierids and then others in subsequent updates to this post.  Some of the pierids were so beautiful.  Many of these were quite strange with colourful outer wings but rather dull black and white inner wings.

Here was one of the prettiest known as a Painted Jezebel (_Delias kyparete_):













This is the beautiful Red-base Jezebel (_Delias descombesi_), a species that is the most numerous in the hills.







The most common Jezebel by far was the Malayan Jezebel (_Delias ninus_).  Unfortunately, all of those that I saw remained high overhead.







Here is one of the Gulls (_Cepora nadina_): 







Spotted Sawtooth (_Prioneris thestylis_):  I saw one of these on most days.  What a beauty!







... a sawtooth mixed with Chocolate Albatross.







Redspot Sawtooth (_Prioneris philonome_)







an Albatross (_Appias cardena_)







White Albatross (_Appias indra_)







Orange Albatross (_Appias nero_):  one of the few entirely orange butterflies.  The upperwings were brightly coloured so this was a lovely butterfly in flight. 







Chocolate Albatross (_Appias lyncida_)












Banded Puffin (_Appias pandione_):  These had both white and yellow forms.













_Dercas verhuelli_







Grass Yellow (_Eurema simulatrix_)







Grass Yellow (_Eurema sp_.)


----------



## moloch (Aug 14, 2011)

Here are a few Nymphalids.

Black and white striped butterflies like this are fairly common.  There are many species that look like this but with subtle variations.  This one is _Athyma cama_







_Athyma selenophora_







Map (_Cyrestis maenalis_) 







Map (_Cyrestis nivea_)







... one of the Casters (_Ariadne merione_)







Small Leopard (_Philanta alcippe_)







Malay Yeoman (_Cirrochroa malaya_)







Banded Yeoman (_Cirrochroa orissa_)







_Cirrochroa tyche_







Jester (_Symbrenthia hypatia_)







Autumn Leafwing (_Doleschallia bisaltide_) 












Asian Leaf Butterfly (_Kallima limborgii_):  What an amazing butterfly!  This one was attracted to fermenting bananas.  It allowed me to closely approach it for photos. 







Tawny Rajah (_Charaxes bernardus_):   This is a member of the genus that is so big in Africa.  There are a fair number of species in Malaysia as well.







Related to the _Charaxe_s are these _Polyura_ butterflies known as Nawabs.

Common Nawab (_Polyura athamas_)












Similar but much less common.  _Polyura moori_







Similar but common.  Plain Nawab (_Polyura hebe_):







Yellow Indian Nawab







Wizzard (_Rhinopalpa polynice_)












_Stibochiona nicea_







Black-tipped Archduke (_Lexias pardalis_)







Blue Admiral (_Kaniska canace_)







I saw two of these gorgeous Constables (_Dichorragia nesimachus_).  They both were attracted to shrimp paste bait.  I think that they closely resemble in colour and behaviour the _Hamadryas_ of the neotropics.







Royal Assyrian (_Terinos terpander_):  these can be stunning in good light.  This one was unfortunately quite worn.







This butterfly is not colourful but it is a member of a rare species (_Euthalia eriphylae_) 







_Paduca fasciata_








Common Three Ring (_Ypthima pandocus_)












Here are photos of a few swallowtails.  _Graphium_ is the abundant genus of swallowtails in the Asian tropics.

_Graphium bathycles_:







_Graphium evamon_







Common Bluebottle ("Blue Triangle" in Australia)  (_Graphium sarpedon_):  This was the most common _Graphium_ at the sites that I visited.







Red Helen (_Papilio helenus_):  big and common












Great Mormom (_Papilio memnon_):  even bigger than Red Helen and also common.







Four-bar Swallowtail (_Pathysa agetes_)







Green Dragontail (_Lamproptera meges_):  This swallowtail looks much like a long-tailed skipper. 







Relatives of Monachs (Danainae subfamily of Nymphs) were abundant and some of the most conspicuous butterflies at Fraser's Hill.  Most were brown with iridescent patches of blue or purple on the upper wings.

Malayan Crow (_Euploea camaralzeman_):  this was one of the largest crows that I observed.







Blue-striped Crow (_Euploea mulciber_)












Purple-brand King Crow (_Euploea eunice_):  another large species of crow












Magpie Crow (_Euploea radamanthus_):  common near water.







Yellow Glassy Tiger (_Parantica aspasia_)







Chocolate Tiger (_Parantica melaneus_) 












Dark Blue Tiger (_Tirumala septentrionis_)







Common Tiger (_Danaus genutia_):  looks much like a Monarch but not quite as large.








*LYCAENIDAE*

Blues were abundant and included butterflies with a range of colours and patterns.

Leaf Blue Leaf (Amblypodia narada)







Elbowed Pierrot (_Caleta elna_) 







Malayan Sunbeam (_Curetis santana_)












Common Hedge Blue (_Acytolepis puspa_)







Fluffy Tit (_Zeltus amasa_)







RHIODINIDAE (Metalmarks)

Punchinello (_Zemeros flegyas_)












HESPERIIDAE (skippers)

Geographic Map (_Odina hieroglyphica_)







_Potanthus ganda_







_Telicota colon_ 







_Pithauria marsena_








Tailed Judy (_Abisara neophron_):  a Rhiodinid







Common Faun (_Faunis canens_):  Morphinae







_Lyssa_ Moth:







Sphyinx:







Cerambycid:







Orchid:







... that is it!

Reactions: Like 2


----------



## Kruggar (Aug 15, 2011)

These shots are amazing, Thanks for putting the time in to name all the species. Gorgeous butterflies.


----------

