As usual the carpark at the Visitor Centre was jam-packed with cars but thankfully I managed to get a nice lot for the quick walk. The weather was nice and dry and I went straight for my usual trail. This is not a very safe trail as it is a mountain bike trail and the trail is very busy with bikers on a Saturday morning. Nevertheless it is a productive trail as it is less disturbed by hikers on foot.
The first beetle that appeared was this hairy little beetle (~2 mm). It was busily moving around a piece of leaf. Not easy to photograph it especially with a light breeze blowing.
I was surprised to see a lone fungus beetle moving around on a dead log. Guess it might have stayed up late as fungus beetles usually come out in the night.
Moving down the trail, I came across this lovely Lizard Beetle (Languria mozardi) which tolerated all the camera flashes for a good 5 minutes or so.
Walking along the main path, I came across what looked like a small path and I decided to take short detour to check it out. Just a moment into the path, I saw this beautiful Net-winged Beetle (Dictyoptera aurora). This particular beetle was so sensitive that it wouldn't let me get within 1.5 meters and it would fly off. After several attempts and following it around, I gave up the idea of wanting to get closer to get a good macro shot and use the tele-zoom instead.
Still on the detour path, I came across this beautiful Leaf Beetle which is yellowish-gold in color. It remained pretty still and only to decide to move off after a few flashes.
Going back to the main path, I came across a dead log with some fresh large fungus growing on it. This could have been the results of the heavy rain a day before. On the fungus was this 2 mm beetle. It looked like a Fungus Beetle.
It was not until I was looking through the photographs at home that I noticed that the beetle was actually laying a large clutch of white color eggs. How interesting.
Moving at a much faster pace due to the limited time, I chanced upon this lovely metallic blue Leaf Beetle. At one glance it looked like the Altica cyanea but as I looked closer, it is slightly different in terms of the shape of the elytra and color of the antenna.
Just before I reached the U-turn point, I came across this 5 mm Darkling Beetle, resting on a broken blade of grass.
While I was photographing the Darkling Beetle, this Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) decided that it want its photograph taken as it flew right in front of me. I have not been able to get a very good photograph of this beetle as it is also very sensitive to movement and would fly away when it detects movements. True enough it flew off after only a handful of shots.
A stone throw away, I found this Leaf Beetle resting in the shade.
The highlight of this short trip was this strange looking Spiny Leaf Beetle. Looking through the view finder, I discovered that this beetle is different from the Spiny Leaf Beetle (Dicladispa armigera) I came across previously, even though the coloration is the same. Like most of the other beetles, after a few shots it decided that it had enough of my camera flashes and flew off in a rather clumsy manner. Interesting beetle!
My pace of walking to go back to the Visitor Centre was quick due to the extra time taken to photograph the interesting Spiny Leaf Beetle. Walking quickly did not make me miss the opportunity to photograph this little colorful and lovely beetle.
Although this trip I was a little rushed for time, I am happy that I still managed to come across some beautiful beetles and get some nice photographs of them.
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