Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Vestalis gracilis


Second new record to Singapore for my project!

The Clear Winged Forest Glory, Vestalis gracilis.

Found in Mandai Track 16 stream during one of our surveys. When my dad saw this he originally thought it was the Vestalis amoena or amethystina, both rather commonly found in Singapore forests. So he got a photo to do the identification at home. But when we reached home we realized that it did not look like either of the species!

It can be distinguished rather easily from the other two by the white-ish markings on the sides of the thorax, and furthermore its habitat is rather different from the two forest ones.

We went back to look for more of them with Mr Tang and here we go, two more individuals :D

The Mandai Track 16 stream is also not conserved, and is in fact just below the BKE. We do have many essential nature areas outside our reserves that're worth conserving!

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