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.
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.