# Fraser's Hill, Malaysia. July 2011



## moloch05 (Aug 3, 2011)

Greetings everyone,

I am back from a wonderful trip to Malaysia. I spent six weeks in June and July at several sites including Taman Negara in west Malaysia, the Maliau Basin in Sabah (east Malaysia, Borneo) and then Fraser's Hill (west Malaysia). My trip was prompted by an invitation to participate on a butterfly survey of the Maliau Basin. This reserve was largely unknown with regards to butterflies and a group of avid photographers from Singapore and Malaysia were able to organize the survey. I, of course, looked for reptiles, birds and mammmals while there. I did the same at all sites although I spent much of the time in pursuit of butterflies.

I will have three posts from this trip. Reptiles were hard going so unfortuantely I won't have many shots of these creatures. I will have many other natural history photos along with numerous shots of the butterflies. Malaysia is one of the top locations in the world for butterflies. The total list is on the order of 1400 species so the diversity and sheer numbers of butterflies at most sites was staggering. I had lots of fun searching for these and the other animals that live in the Malaysian rainforests.

Fraser's Hill is a lovely hill station located about 100 km northeast of Kuala Lumpur. The temperature in the mountains is much lower than in the hot, steamy lowlands so this is a popular retreat on the weekends. Weekdays were quiet and I usually had the roads and trails to myself. My wife and I stayed at the Pekan Bungalow as we did on our last visit. 







Not far away was the town centre with this often photographed clock:






... and the restaurants where we ate. Food was cheap and my wife and I could usually buy a tasty, spicy dinner for less than $10 AUD for the two of us.






Here are shots of the rainforest near the little town of Fraser's hill or along the 8 km road down to the Gap. 














Mornings and evenings were often misty although not really all that cool. Temperatures usually hovered between 18C and 24C.










I visited the Jeriau Falls area a few kms from the hill on several afternoons. The sandy area along the creek above the falls was a great place for butterflies. I learned how to bait for butterflies with the butterfly photographers in Borneo. Shrimp paste (belachan) dissolved in water worked very well. The Malaysians use this smelly stuff in many of their dishes and the butterflies love it as well.










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.


This is the burrow of one of the primitive trapdoor spiders, _Liphistius sp_. I passed a small stick across the door of the burrow and the spider absolutely exploded out of its burrow and hit the stick with considerable force. I involuntarily jumped back and this unfortunately flicked the girl onto the ground. She was highly defensive at first with front legs and fangs lifted but then after awhile, appeared frightened to be so exposed. I used a stick to lift her and place her next to her burrow. Hopefully, she found her way home.










This one popped out of its burrow when I was working with the spider above. It seemed to be watching to see the source of the commotion.






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 Yellos (_Eurema sp_.)


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## lgotje (Aug 3, 2011)

such nice pics mate well done bet u had a blast 
cheers
locky


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## richoman_3 (Aug 3, 2011)

stunning photos as usual mate, love the geckos and trappy


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## Wild~Touch (Aug 3, 2011)

Love your work and thank you for sharing


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## moloch05 (Aug 4, 2011)

Thanks very much!


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_


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## JFisher (Aug 7, 2011)

Mate, great pictures. What camera were you using?


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## moloch05 (Aug 10, 2011)

Thanks, JFisher. I use a Canon 40D with a Tamron 180mm macro for most of the butterfly shots.

Shrimp paste was an effective bait for attracting butterflies. There weren't any butterflies sitting along the creek in the following photo until I poured out a little of the shrimp paste mixture.






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_


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## snakes123 (Aug 10, 2011)

Wow i went to malaysia  I only saw a viper and cobra and a ton monkeys.


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## codysnake (Aug 10, 2011)

woah! very nice pics! They are some stunning butterflies and the cat snake was stunning i love boigas!


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## FlippinBirdies (Aug 10, 2011)

Now usually I glaze over when people show me pics of their holidays but damm they are amazing and not one boring pic of a person in front of a tourist spot waving stupidly! lol 

You have a gift for photography and found some amazing subjects! I felt so sad for the little one about to die though 

I hope you go on holiday soon so we can see more!


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## Treknotechelaps (Aug 10, 2011)

Awesome pics!
Like the Elaphe flavolineata.
Some cool looking Butterflies there, the Asian Leaf Butterfly looks interesting, and love the Green Dragontail but the Fluffy Tit Butterfly would have to be the most spunnout butterfly i've seen.


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## moloch05 (Aug 14, 2011)

Thanks very much, everyone. Flippin', my wife thinks my photos are boring since I don't include people shots. Oh well ...

Here are a final few shots before I begin a post of Taman Negara photos.


Tailed Judy (_Abisara neophron_): a Rhiodinid






Common Faun (_Faunis canens_): Morphinae






_Lyssa_ Moth:






Sphyinx:






Cerambycid:






Rhionceros Beetle: Not nearly as impressive as those at from Maliau Basin.









Orchid:






... that is it!


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## viridis (Aug 23, 2011)

Fantastic David!

When are you coming up to visit Holly and I again? You must be just about due for another FNQ trip?

I need you to I.D a few Butterfly shots that I took in Thailand and Singapore too.

Hope the family are well mate,

Cheers,
Nick


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## moloch05 (Aug 24, 2011)

Hello Nick,

I did not recognize "viridis" but that is appropriate. I would love to get up there again. I may have a chance in early November but that depends on work.

I would love to see your shots from Thailand and Singapore.

Say hello to Holly and congrads!

Regards,
David


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## CHEWY (Aug 28, 2011)

You did it again David,
I never actively go out searching for inverts, but always take the time to admire them when I find them. The butterflies are quite fascinating when they are magnified in a photo like that.
The Boiga did have a lot of qualities reminiscent of Imantodes lentiferus, the elongated head was the give away though.

Gotta love a fluffy tit.


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