Fraser's Hill, Malaysia, July 2011

moloch

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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Sep 17, 2009
Messages
171
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.
 

zonbonzovi

Creeping beneath you
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
3,346
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

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
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171
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

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
171
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 Charaxes 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!
 

Kruggar

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 7, 2010
Messages
369
These shots are amazing, Thanks for putting the time in to name all the species. Gorgeous butterflies. :D
 
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