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Jurong Eco-Garden: Butterfly Watch 2020

Updated: Jul 12, 2023

On 18 September 2020, at 1pm, members of the TEE Lab assembled under the hot sun at Jurong Eco-Garden (JEG) to see what butterflies would be around the park. This was done as part of the biannual citizen science Butterfly Watch programme organised by the National Parks Board. 


The Butterfly Watch survey adopts the Pollard’s Walk methodology, whereby surveyors walk along an assigned transect, and record only the species that enter an imaginary 5m by 5m by 5m cube in front of them. This is a precaution that aims to reduce the likelihood of double-counting already recorded individuals, since surveyors should not be looking back along the path at any point. Each transect is 200m long, and the time taken to complete each one should be approximately 20 minutes.


Our assigned site was JEG, a well-managed urban park just on the outskirts of the NTU campus. As the "green lungs” of CleanTech Park, its sustainable and eco-friendly design has earned it recognition as the first new park to be given the BCA-NParks Green Mark Platinum Award. It was indeed a lush park, albeit secluded, but definitely harbouring rich wildlife beyond the taxa we were tasked to survey that day.



Check out this white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) we immediately spotted as we neared our first transect.



Armed with cameras and binoculars, off we started with our survey!


Our first transect was through the Butterfly Garden, and it was abuzz with life! Emigrants busily flitted from peacock flower to snakeweed, while pansies glided around us at their own pace. The area was bustling with butterfly activity, and it was difficult to keep track of all the butterflies circling around us.



A peaock pansy (Junonia almana) stopped to rest in the foliage. In comparison to its charismatic upperside with its bright orange colour and large eyespots, its underside looks rather unassuming and plain.



A lemon emigrant (Catopsilia pomona) puddling on some soil. Butterflies, especially the males, puddle to take up more nutrients and minerals. Males use these to manufacture pheromones and sperm when courting females to mate with.



Peekaboo! This tropical carpenter bee (Xylocopa latipes) seemed to be burrowing into this hole in a wooden pole in the Butterfly Garden.



Mistaken as a plain tiger at first, we also briefly spotted a leopard lacewing before it ventured deeper into the wooded area. It was only at the end of the transect that we spotted it again, and managed to take a few shots to confirm its identity. 



The leopard lacewing (Cethosia cyane) was only recently re-discovered in Singapore in 2005. Since then, it has established a stable population and can be regularly spotted in wasteland and nature reserve habitats.



Next, we moved on to our second transect near the summit lookout. The habitat was quite different from the first transect, as it was not specifically populated with common popular butterfly-attracting host plants. In contrast, it featured a denser forest setting; we would expect to see more forest specialist butterflies along this transect.


Right off the bat, a Horsfield’s baron (Tanaecia iapis puseda) flew right by us just as we started the survey. We also briefly spotted a lascar-looking individual, but it was too high up and did not land long enough for a confident identification to be made. All in all, we observed a lower abundance of butterflies in our second transect near the summit lookout, compared to the first one in the Butterfly Garden. This could be indicative of the importance of the presence of host plants in determining species assemblages within a certain site. 


All in all, we spotted a total abundance of 47 individuals, and 18 distinct species. The full species list can be seen below. The bolded species were common in both sites.



And that concludes our fruitful butterfly-watching session in Jurong Eco-Garden!




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