Butterflies of Singapore: Butterfly of the Month

Butterfly of the Month – December 2021

The Yellow Flat (Mooreana trichoneura trichoneura)

A Yellow Flat sunbathing on a leaf with its wings unfold open flat

And the ultimate month of 2021 is right here! It is the festive season, and the world must look forward with extra optimism. I’m certain that we have had sufficient speak of COVID19 for the previous 2 years, and it’s one thing that everybody has grown uninterested in. Letting it proceed to steal our treasured time and management our lives will solely make us extra depressing. Regardless of a brand new variant and probably extra mutations, life has to go on. Measures are put in place, and dangers are mitigated, and allow us to look ahead to 2022 with larger optimism.

The month of December is a time for holidays, sharing time with our family members and a time for reflection and making resolutions for the brand new 12 months forward. Within the northern hemisphere, the climate is mostly colder and when birds fly south to hotter climes. However it’s a time which supplies that means to a “White Christmas” and for us to experience the fantastic thing about Mom Nature’s seasons.

A Yellow Flat feeding on pink Lantana flowers

Talking of the climate, it’s the monsoon season in Southeast Asia, and it has been notably moist in neighbouring Malaysia. Inundated by floods over the previous week, it’s a grim reminder of local weather change the place excessive climate phenomenon impacts many nations all all over the world. The heavy rains proceed unabated and it’s seemingly that the floods will proceed into the approaching weeks. Unusually, the climate has been moderately dry in Singapore with occasional thundery showers, however to this point, not sufficient to trigger floods but.

And over the previous week or so, Singapore’s information portals – each mainstream and social media have been full of an unusual “celebration” of kinds. Information {that a} comparatively unknown Singaporean badminton participant – Loh Kean Yew, managed to upset larger ranked gamers, together with World #1 Viktor Axelsen, on his technique to win the BWF World Championship in Huelva, Spain. For the primary time in its historical past, a Singaporean has received the BWF World Champion title – one which even neighbouring Malaysia (extra of a badminton nation than Singapore) has by no means received earlier than!

A Yellow Flat puddling on a concrete kerb

Our Butterfly of the Month for the ultimate month of 2021 is the Yellow Flat (Mooreana trichoneura trichoneura). A newly found species for Singapore when it was noticed about 9 years in the past, the Yellow Flat is among the species from the subfamily Pyrginae, also known as “Flats and Unfold-Winged Skippers”. It’s described as a uncommon forest-dependent species in Malaysia, usually flying within the lowlands.

To this point, the species has solely been noticed on the western facet of Singapore, within the neighborhood of the Nanyang Technological College (NTU). The Yellow Flat shows the standard behaviour of different species within the Pyrginae subfamily. It’s usually noticed perched on the tops of leaves to sunbathe or feeding on flowers. However when alarmed, it flies shortly below a leaf and perches with its wings opened flat.

The underside of the hindwing of the Yellow Flat is predominantly white

The upperside of the Yellow Flat’s wings is darkish brown with veins strongly dusted in white or pale yellow. The forewing bears quite a lot of spherical and streaked hyaline spots within the distal half of the wing. The hindwing has a big yellow patch on the tornal space with yellow colored cilia reaching as much as vein 6. When seen from the highest, the stomach is striped with pale yellow.

On the underside, the forewing is darkish brown with the identical set of spots as on the upperside. The hindwing is predominantly white from the dorsum to vein 6 with the white colouration diffusing into area 7 and past. Males of this species has a hair tuft on the mid- and hind tibiae.

The caterpillars have been efficiently bred on a domestically frequent plant, Mallotus paniculatus (Flip-In-the-Wind). This host plant is shared by a number of different native butterfly species. The caterpillar of the Yellow Flat creates a singular leaf shelter and makes it straightforward to identify when on the host plant. The grownup butterfly, nevertheless, isn’t usually seen within the subject.