The very first beetle that greeted me was this 20 mm Long Horned Beetle. It was very alert and only allowed me to photograph it for a short moment before making its way into the darkness.
The next beetle was a Darkling Beetle resting on a dried up tree branch. Like the Long Horned Beetle, it only stay still for a few shots and wandered away.
Another Darkling Beetle on a nearby tree.
To my pleasant surprise, I found a few of this small (5 mm) Ground Beetle running around a piece of dry dead log.
After a short walk, I finally came across a Fungus Beetle, munching on a bracket fungus. It was so shiny that it reflected the fungus that it was feeding on.
On a tree trunk I came across a Darkling Beetle which I initially thought was the Strongylium erthrocephalum, but the size and coloration of its legs seemed to say otherwise.
Another Darkling Beetle found on the same tree trunk as above. This Darkling Beetle is different from the earlier encountered Darkling Beetles as it is very much bigger (7~8 mm).
A tiny (3 mm) Fungus Beetle munching its way on a dead log. Lovely patterns on its elytra.
As I shined my torchlight around, some movements on a piece of log caught my attention. A small beetle (5 mm) that I have not seen before. It was highly active and have not stopped the moment I first noticed it. It was a quite a challenge to even get a good shot of it. It looked very much like a Flower Beetle (same family as the Tumbling Flower Beetle).
Another Fungus Beetle, happily munch the white fungus on a log.
In a near by plant was this tiny (3 mm) Orange-Brown Click Beetle.
A stone throw away was this common Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis). It looked like it had eaten a big chunk of the leaf already.
Looking closely at a tree trunk, I found this perfectly camouflaged small (7 mm) Weevil Beetle.
Then came this beetle, not too sure if it is a Darkling Beetle or a Fungus Beetle. It looked different from the other Darkling or Fungus Beetle because of the big eyes.
On a dead log was this tiny beetle (3 mm). It looked like a Net-winged Beetle from the side, albeit a little bit hairy.
The highlight of the trip was finding this peculiar looking Leaf Beetle. I am surprised to see it in the night. It remained pretty still for me to take some close-up shots, until it decided that it had enough of my camera flashes. I particularly like the shape and color of the antennae, looked like candy.
Another "night walker" Leaf Beetle (Colasposoma auripenne). I have always thought that they are diurnal beetle and I am pretty surprised to see them still actively munching on leaves in the night.
Perching upside down on a tree trunk was this Long Horned Beetle (Epepeotes luscus). It was super alert and I only managed to take 2 shots of it before it flew off into the bushes.
On a nearby tree was this Ground Beetle. It was busily munching on the tree bark that it is oblivious to my camera flashes. This relatively big (18 mm) Ground Beetle seemed to be pretty common, especially at Venus Drive.
A Fungus Weevil (15 mm) decided to join in the photography session. It was super active and moved quickly along a dead tree trunk. Fortunately, it decided to take a break and gave me an opportunity to photograph it.
While I was wondering what happened to all the Fungus Beetles as I didn't see many of them around even though the place was full of dead tree logs, a Fungus Beetles (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus) decided to come out.
While photographing the Fungus Beetle, a Fungus Weevil came out to join in the party. It blended beautifully with its background and I didn't notice it until it moved.
I was almost at the end of the trip and found this Fungus Beetle. At a glance it looked very much like the earlier Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus) but the shape of the front spots looked different.
This was the last of the beetle before I reached the end of my trip, and it had to be super active and alert. It never stopped moving around. I have taken many shots of this 7~8 mm Fungus Weevil but most of the shots were bad due to its constant movement. Fortunately, there are still one or two good shots out of a dozen of them taken.
The trip started off slow but as the night grew deeper, more beetles came out. It was a pleasant trip with the finding of four interesting beetles.
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