Night Walk at Pasir Ris Town Park (07 Apr 2017)

The weather was nice and dry in the afternoon and so my friend HW and I decided to go to Pasir Ris Town Park for our night macro-photography session. When we reached the place, we decided to take another route instead of the usual route, forgetting that it was not very fruitful the last time we took the route. On this particular trip, I am also trying out a "new" flash diffuser, and sadly the results was not very satisfactory especially the brightness, causing most of the photographs to be slightly grainy.

Nevertheless the route did yield some interesting critters along the way. Here's a photograph of one of the many Praying Mantis that we came across during the trip. This specimen is about 60 mm in size. The inset is a smaller 30 mm green Praying Mantis, specially included for a friend who recently was interested in finding green Praying Mantis. It is interesting to note that nowadays we tend to encounter brown colored Praying Mantis more than the green ones, especially the larger ones (~80 mm).

The first beetle for the trip was a commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis). Several of them were found on a small plant at the edge of an open field.

Among a patch of tall lalang grass nearby was a small 3 mm Ladybird Beetle larvae, spotted by HW.

A stone's throw away was another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus).

On a tree near by was a lone 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

On the same tree, hiding in a small crevice in the tree bark was a small 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

On another tree near by was a larger 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

The highlight of the trip was the encounter with this lovely 6 mm Leaf Beetle, on a blade of a lalang grass. It has been a while that I last encountered this beetle.

Just like the previous trip, the route was not very fruitful. It was only after a while of walking before finding this Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea) on a leaf of an acacia tree (Acacia auriculiformis).

More walking before I found this small 3 mm Ladybird Beetle (Illeis koebelei) on a low bush. I always like photographing this beetle because of its vibrant yellow elytra. Sadly the new flash diffuser did not do justice to this bright and lovely beetle.

It was only a stone's throw from where we would usually find Tiger Beetles (Cicindela aurulenta) that I found this all time favorite Click Beetle (Pectocera babai).

Just a slight distance from the Click Beetle was another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Phyllophaga marginalis). This is one of the larger Chafer Beetles that you can find in Singapore.

Next to the Phyllophaga marginalis Chafer Beetle was another Chafer Beetle (Aprosterna pallide) resting on a leaf of a low bush.

We finally reached the area where large colony of this type of Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) can be found. At the area, you can  easily find a few tens of them congregating on low bushes.

Further down the route was another long time didn't encounter Soldier Beetle.

Just meters away was a small 5 mm bronze color Leaf Beetle.

The last beetle for the trip was a Chafer Beetle (Anomala variegata) resting on a creeper.

Although Pasir Ris Park has been a fruitful place to visit, the route that we took for this trip was not at all productive. Nevertheless this is still a good trip as we were able to photograph some of the more unique beetles.