ABOVE: A male Magpie Crow butterfly Euploea radamanthus sucking up moisture on damp car paint in the car park at Luagan Lalak recreation Park on the Labi Road en route to Bukit Terajah in Brunei Darussalam.
There are 12 species of Crow (Euploea) butterflies in Borneo all more or less patterned in black and white aposematic (danger warning) colours. Males use their proboscis like to straw to suck up moisture with the sponge like tip, Preferred surfaces such as old paint and bare concrete are mineral rich. Males later pass these mineral salts onto females during the act of copulation.
This Ficus fulva fig tree was growing in the same car park at Luagan lalak. The Euploea crow larvae (caterpillars) feed mainly on figs and other latex bearing plants. Male Crow butterflies often hang around fig trees waiting for females to arrive to lay their eggs. Before they lay their eggs the females need to find a male to fertilize them so for a male Crow the Luagan lalak car park was the perfect site to wait.This Ficus fulva fig tree was probably a male tree from the large size and pale green colour of the ripe figs. Female F. fulva figs are smaller when ripe and ripen bright orange.Luagan Lalak a seasonal peat swamp lake on the road to Bukit Terajah in Brunei well worth a stop if you are interested in birds or butterflies. There is a long boardwalk into the lake and on our visit there were lots of birds to see.
