Afternoon Walk At Venus Drive (22 Oct 2016)

It has been a long while that I did my macro-photography session in the afternoon and so I decided to go to Venus Drive, knowing that the chances of finding beetles in the afternoon will be much higher than other locations.

Here's an interesting photograph of a patch of small fungus growing on the underside of a dead tree.The fungus reminded me of ice cream popsicle.

The first beetle for the trip was a Pintail Beetle. I was fortunate as it remained motionless despite the constant flashing from my speedlite.

Near to the Pintail Beetle was a small patch of huge Elephant Ear plant where several of this Ant-like Flower Beetles were found on the underside of a leaf.

The sky was overcast with thunder rumbling continuously and it seemed like it will rain any time. Just at this moment, I saw a white dot flew under a leaf and immediately I know what it was - one of my favorite beetle, a white Ladybird Beetle. The distinctive feature for this beetle is its lovely greenish-blue eyes.

Under a leaf of a plant near by, I spotted a similar White Ladybird Beetle but noticed that it has black eyes instead of the greenish-blue eyes. Not sure if it is a mutation as it seemed to be less sensitive to my camera flashes.

 As expected, it was only a while of walking before I found this large group of Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana).

Next to the Tumbling Flower Beetle was a small 5 mm Leaf Beetle (Graphops curtipennis) on a leaf.

More walking before I spotted this Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis).

On a tree nearby was this resting Darkling Beetle in a crevice of a small tree.

Coming to a fallen tree, I was glad to find several of this Fungus Beetle on it.

On the same tree trunk were several of this lovely Net-winged Beetle.

More walking without finding any beetles until I noticed this 7 mm Weevil Beetle flew in front of me and landed on a leaf.

The rumbling of thunders above continues and I decided to pick up my paces before it rain.  When I was almost at the exit, I found several of this small 2 mm Darkling Beetles on a large tree.

On the same tree was a tiny 4 mm Fungus Weevil.

On a small tree nearby, I was glad to see several of this beetle larvae.

Just a stone's throw away from the beetle larvae was this tiny 4 mm fist-time-encountered Fungus Weevil (Apolecta transversa).

I was surprised to see that the antennae of the beetle was almost 7 times its body length.

The last beetle for the trip was a big surprise - it was a 4 mm first-time-encountered Fungus Weevil resting on the side of a tree. It was very skittish and flew off after one photograph.

This was an interesting trip and I am glad that the decision to do an afternoon walk was a right one, despite the mosquitoes and heat. Finding two first-time-encountered beetles was a real bonus for the trip.