Beetle@SG Website


Please check out my website Beetles@SG for identification of beetles found in Singapore http://davidmoh1313.wix.com/beetlesg

Thursday 21 February 2013

A Walk At The Green Corridor (20 Feb 2013)

Read about the Green Corridor (the converted railway track) in the newspaper and planned for a walk on the trail during my leave. My walk started from the Bukit Timah Nature Reserves and walking towards Clementi.

The first beetle for the trip was the commonly seen orange leaf beetle (Hoplasoma unicolor) . There was a stretch of its food plants along the trail and many were found feasting on the leaves.

Walked for a distance and there was no other actions until I came across this tiny (<2mm) beetle on a blade of grass.

The trail was not particularly easy to walk as certain stretches of the  trail were wet and muddy. The conditions were further worsen by bicycles that dug deep into the mud, forming muddy water puddles all over the place.

Was not paying too much attention at the surrounding fuana as my focus was more on the track, in order to avoid stepping into the soft mud. Despite the carefulness, I still ended up with a pair of muddy shoes and soiled pants.

Just when I was lamenting about the bad condition of the trail, a little black speck caught my eyes. Zooming in with the camera, I had pleasant surprise. It was a Spiny Leaf Beetle (Dicladispa armigera). What a find! I read about this on the internet but was not expecting to find it. I am even more surprised that it was so small (<2mm). Sadly, I was not able to get a very good shot of the beetle as it was moving around quite a fair bit, and given the wet ground which provided little support.  (Note to self - must remember to bring tripod or monopod for future trips).

In the vicinity of the Spiny Leaf Beetle was a blue color Leaf Beetle. It looked like Lema cyanella but need confirmation.

 Much of my time was spent focusing on the muddy path and hence was not really noticing what's on the side of the trail until this came along. It was a Tumbling Flower Beetle (Mordella fasciata), a different one from the Tumbling Flower Beetles (Glipa oculata) that I previously encountered.

Walking gingerly so as not to get too much mud onto my shoes and pants, the walk was painfully slow. Of course walking slowly does has its advantage as I managed to spot this partially obsured beautiful ladybird.

 The rest of the journey was not particularly eventful besides the muddy ground. The worse was a continous stretch of 50-60 metres of soft mud. I really hoped that something can be done about it.

Just when I about to end my walk, this tiny beetle flew across my path. It is about 3mm in size and what captured my attention was the pattern on or may be underneath its elytra. Lovely markings.

Near the ending point for my walk, stood this Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa).

Just only a stone's throw from the exit point, was this ground beetle on a big leaf. Its posture looked a little  strange though. While taking shots of this beetle, the sky started to drizzle and thus ended my first trip on the Green Corridor.
This trip was interesting, especially because of the Spiny Leaf Beetle and Tumbling Flower Beetle. Although the trip yielded some interesting beetles, the experience was marred by the muddy paths. Besides the photographs of beetles, I also go away with a pair of muddy shoes and dirty pants. Will think twice going back there.

No comments:

Post a Comment