Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Grand Imperial

I was rushing home as the weather was starting to get overcast and I didn't want to get caught in a downpour with two lens in tow. As I hastily walked past a tree, a butterfly caught my eye. It was alone and a lot larger than the other Lycaenidae that I have come across.It didn't take me long to flip through my brain to realise that I found another butterfly from the Lycaenidae family.Wuhoo!!!! The butterfly find pushed all thoughts of heading home quickly out of my brain as I switched modes to gotta get my photos no matter what. I must have spent another 10 minutes photographing the butterfly making sure I got all the shots I wanted. From experience I know that I may not come across the rare butterfly again. My little lone beauty is the Grand Imperial.The Grand Imperial (Neocheritra amrita amrita) is rare, and on Singapore island, mostly individuals are observed. The adult butterfly appears to be a tree-top dweller and occasionally descends to feed or lay eggs. It shares the behaviour of a closely-related species, the Great Imperial (Jacoona anasuja anasuja) and resembles it closely. Where encountered, the butterfly is observed to fly rapidly, and stops to rest with its wings folded upright. Very rarely, it can be seen sunbathing with its wings opened.

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