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Saturday 19 January 2013

A Walk At Dairy Farm Nature Park (17 Jan 2013)

After almost a week of wet weather, the weather today is exceptionally sunny and warm - perfect weather for a walk in the park. This time round it is Dairy Farm Nature Park. It has been a long time since I last visited the place and hence I headed to the place with much expectation.



Started the walk through a lesser travelled path and immediately a yellow little beetle flew across my path and landed under a leaf. It is about 5mm in length. It looks like a long horned beetle. ID anyone?



Along the path there were a few fallen logs and bracket fungus were growing on it. Moving busily on the fungus were two fungus beetles (Eumorphus dilatatus turritus). The beetles seem dusty, perhaps caused by the previous few days of rain.



Not too far down, I came across a tree with a fair bit of lichen. As I moved closer, something tiny caught my eyes, a fungus beetle. It looked slightly different from the 4 spotted fungus beetles that I saw before as the upper yellow spots are much rounder compared to the ones I came across previously. May be a different one to be added to my list of fungus beetles.



After the encounter with the fungus beetle, it seems that all the beetles were hidding for the noon-day sun. Pretty hot noon I must add. I was about to turn back and move to another trail when some tiny beetles caught my eyes. They look like fungus beetles but very small in size about 2mm or may be lesser. The little critters were pretty busy.



Another photograph of the tiny beetle. This was not so busy and hence I was able to get a much closer shot.



After photographing the tiny beetles, I decided to go back to the more frequently used paths. Just at the start of the trail and I saw this Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana). This little beetle never fails to enchant me with the patterns on its elytra.



Moving along the main path, a tiger beetle (Therates dimidiatus) suddenly came into view while I was trying to take a photo of an unsual looking fly. Like all Tiger Beetles, this beetle is easily spooked and I ended up using a tele-zoom instead a macros shot.



Moving into a small path, the path suddenly was full of activities. A couple of Tiger Beetles (Cicindela aurulenta) were running and flying around. You will need a lot of patience to photograph them. Glad to catch this beetle while rested for a little while.



As I walked along the path, I saw another fallen tree log and moved closer to see if there any fungus beetles on it. Just about 1.5 metres from the tree log, I can see tiny little shiny green beetle running away. So taking a few step back and I waited. Within a short while a dozen of this small ground beetles started to appear. Looks like a Tiger Beetle but I saw a blog that says that this is a ground beetle. Can anyone give an ID to this beetle?



Moving along the path, more Tiger Beetles (Therates dimidiatus) appeared.



Moving along an open patch of the trail, the sun is really beating down on everything. The temperature suddenly became so much hotter just metres away from the shade of the forest. While hurrying to move into the shade again, a pleasant surprise flew right in front of me. It was another type of Tiger Beetle (Neocollyris celebensis)  that I have seen it many times on the internet, but never get to see it in person.

Like the rest of the Tiger Beeltes, it is easily spooked. I was trying to get close to it for a good macros shot, it simply flew off. In order not to lose the subject, I have to use the tele-zoom in order to capture some shots.



Just when things are getting interesting, I came across a sign along the path saying - " Trail closed due to soil erosion". Looking at the time, I decided to call it a day and turned back from where I came from.

Just before I am out of the trail, another Tiger Beetles (Therates dimidiatus) appeared. This time round it is slightly less active. May be the hot weather may have something to do with it. With this as the last shot, I left the place satisfied to be able to capture the photographs of the various beetles.

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