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Saturday 18 January 2014

A Quick Morning Walk At Venus Drive (18 Jan 2014)

I had about 1.5 hours of in-between time before the next appointment in the morning so I decided to drop by Venus Drive since I made a last minute change to explore the Yio Chu Kang Road last night. When I reached the place there was already a group of 5-6 people doing macro photography at my usual spot for Leaf Beetles, so I moved on to another spot in order not to disturb the group.


The first beetle that came into view was this tiny 2 mm Ladybird Beetle. It was a bit of a challenge to photograph this beetle as the wind was very strong and the beetle was pretty sensitive to my presence also. Battling the strong wind and the constant movement of the beetle, I only managed to take a few shots and all turned out to be poorly taken. Nevertheless, I have included it here as a record of the trip.


On the same plant was another Ladybird Beetle (Cryptogonus orbiculus). This photograph was also poorly taken and on top of it, I didn't notice that there was a thread of spider web right in front of the beetle, hence the streak of blurriness across the photo. Also included this photograph as a record of the trip.


Moving in a slightly more sheltered place where the wind is not as strong as before, I found this commonly encountered 3 mm beetle clinging onto a stem.


Moving into the trail itself, a Fungus Beetle was found feasting on a bracket fungus growing on a rotting log.


While looking for more Fungus Beetle, I accidentally startled a Net-winged Beetle and it flew from its hiding and landed on a leaf. It is about 10-12 mm and looked like the  Dictyoptera aurora Net-winged Beetle except that its pronotum is not fully colored. This could be a different type of Net-winged Beetle. Please pardon the quality of this photograph as I do not know why occasionally the photographs uploaded became "speckled" even though the original photograph looked perfectly normal.


The wind was exceptionally strong and even when I am in the trail, the tree canopy above were being blown wildly about and occasionally let out some loud creaking sounds, that kept me looking up in case that a branch would fall from above. Just then I found this small 3 mm Weevil Beetle eating its breakfast. I find the posture of the beetle interesting. It was also a challenge to photograph this beetle due to the strong wind. I only managed to snap a few photograph of this beetle during the brief calmness in between bout of strong wind.


Moving onto the clearance, I was surprised to find this lone Handsome Fungus Beetle out in the "open" on a rotting log.


Near to the Fungus Beetle was a beetle larvae.


Moving along the trail, a Net-winged Beetle was resting on a leaf. Although the shape of this beetle looked like a Net-winged Beetle, I am beginning to wonder if it is truly a Net-winged Beetle as the texture of its elytra is not like the other Net-winged Beetle (i.e. netting pattern). I am still searching around to identify this beetle. The same problem for this photograph - not sure why the image became "speckled" just like the photograph of the Net-winged Beetle above.


Moving along quickly as my time at the place was about to be up, a slightly less than 2 mm black speck was found on a leave. Not wanting to miss any opportunities of finding a first-time-encountered beetle, I decided to check it out. To my surprise, it is a first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle with some interesting patterns on it.


It was time to turn back and as I was casually scanning the bushes along the side of the trail, this 3 mm Weevil Beetle was found resting on a new small leave. This is a first-time-encountered Weevil Beetle.


When I was almost out of the trail, a Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus) was found on a patch of black fungus.


Near to the Fungus Beetle, I noticed a slight difference in color and texture at the base of a tree and found this well camouflaged Checkered Beetle.


Just moments when I stepped out of the trail, I was thrilled to find this reddish-brown first-time-encountered Leaf Beetle on a leaf of a tree. It looked like a well polished car, reflecting the sky above it.


Although today I spent half the time that I would usually spent, the trip was fruitful with 3 first-time-encountered beetles photographed.

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