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Saturday 3 January 2015

Night Walk At Venus Drive (02 Jan 2015)

The weather was dry and I decided to go to Venus Drive to have a walk to see if I can find any first-time-encountered beetles. An interesting sight at the place was this Banded Bull Frog (Kaloula pulchra) halfway up the trunk of a tree. Amazing thing about this frog is that despite its plump body, it was able to climb up the tree.


The first beetle was found on a small tree at the car park entrance. It is a Darkling Beetle and is about 5 mm in size.


On another small tree nearby was a small 2 mm Fungus Beetle. Next to the beetle were several balls which could possibly be its eggs.


On another tree was another tiny 2 mm black colored beetle. I initially thought that it is the same type of beetle as above. When I zoomed in with my camera, I am pleasantly surprised to find a first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle.


Moving to a patch of elephant ear plant, I was surprised to find a first-time-encountered Long Horned Beetle. It was rather skittish and dropped from its perch just after two photographs.


On the underside of one of the elephant ear leaves was a few Ant-like Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea).


On the same leaf was a brightly colored Ladybird Beetle (Chilocorus circumdatus).


A Chafer Beetle was found resting on a low bush near to the Ladybird Beetle.


I was hoping to find some sleeping Leaf Beetles, so I went over to a small grass mound where I usually find Leaf Beetles in the day. Sadly not a single Leaf Beetle can be found. Instead I found this tiny 2 mm first-time-encountered beetle. It probably belongs to the family of Toe-winged Beetle.

On a low tree were several different Chafer Beetles, all having a great time feasting on its leaves.






At the entrance to the Venus Drive trail were several Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta). This is pretty unusual as finding them at night previously was a treat, as compared to now where you can find them on almost every plant around the spot.


On a tree nearby was a nicely colored beetle larvae.


Coming to a fallen log, several of this Darkling Beetle (Ceropria superba) were on it.


On the same log were several of this Darkling Beetle.


On a lichen laden tree were two different Fungus Weevils.




At the base of the same tree as the Fungus Weevils was a small 3 mm Darkling Beetle.


Next to the Darkling beetle was a tiny 1 mm Fungus Beetle.


Moving to a woodpile, a beetle larvae was seen moving actively on one of the rotten branch.


Along the trail was what looked like the common black Apogonia expeditionis Chafer Beetle. Upon closer look, it turned out that it has a much broader body and its coloration is not black but dark bronze in color.


On a fallen log at the "opening" was a poor small 5 mm beetle (Martinezostes sp.) on a fallen log. It must have felt really lousy with all these mites on it.


On a woodpile nearby was a Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraspilotus).


On the same log was this tiny 1 mm beetle, possibly a Fungus Beetle.


On a tree further down was this lone 3 mm Darkling Beetle. The number of this small Darkling Beetle seemed to have dwindled as they used to be in great abundance at the place.


On another tree nearby was this first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle. This looked very much like the first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle earlier on but differs in its color pattern slightly.


At the base of the same tree was this bright orange 2 mm beetle. Not sure if this is a Fungus Beetle or a Darkling Beetle.


On the side of the trail was a few Singapore Rhododendron (Melastome malabathricum) plants and on them were a few sleeping Leaf Beetles (Argopus brevis).


On a tree near to the Singapore Rhododendron was a first-time-encountered Checkered Beetle resting on the side of a tree. It has been a while I last encountered any Checkered Beetle and this encounter was a wonderful surprise.


While I was photographing the Checkered Beetle, I noticed a Fungus Beetle hiding under a vine. This is a first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle and it looked very much like the Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus Fungus Beetle except for the spot at the back of its elytra.


Just before I reached the "snow tree", this beetle was found on a lichen on a tree. Not too sure what beetle this is, but it looked a bit like a Long Horned Beetle.


I finally reached the "snow tree" and the condition of the tree has deteriorated a fair bit. On the tree were several fungus mushroom and on one of the fungus mushrooms were several of this Fungus Beetles.


Near the top of the tree was a almost eaten fungus mushroom and on it were a number of Sap Beetles. They started to scatter when my lights was shining on it. This was the only shot of the beetles before they disappeared from the fungus mushroom.


Here is a close-up of one of the Sap Beetles.


At the base of the "snow tree" was several of this 5 mm Fungus Beetle. This particular specimen looked a little odd with its exceptionally short antennae.


At the lower part of the "snow tree" was this lone Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus).


Hidden at the back of the "snow tree" was a small 4 mm Fungus Weevil.


Next to the Fungus Weevil was another Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis).


Moving aimlessly on the "snow tree" was this Flat Bark Beetle (Catogenus rufus).


Resting by the side was this metallic black Ground Beetle.


Near to the Ground Beetle was this Eumorphus assamensis Fungus Beetle, which seemed to be in a hurry to get out of my light.


There were several pairs of this Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta) on the tree.


Resting high up the "snow tree" was this female Fungus Weevil (Anthribus wallacei). You can tell that it is a female beetle from the length of its antennae - the male beetle has much longer antennae.


Time passes by quickly and I didn't noticed that it was pretty late in the night and hence I made a u-turn and picked up my paces towards the start of the trail. As I walk past a lichen laden tree, I saw what I thought is a beetle but it turned out to be a beetle pupae.


As I walked briskly towards the entrance, a brown color Ground Beetle was found feeding by the side of a tree.


The last beetle for the trip was a 5 mm Leaf Beetle that was resting on leaf.


The trip was a fruitful one with a good number of beetles found, especially the few interesting first-time-encountered beetles. Venus Drive is still my top place to look for beetles.

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