Morning Walk At Upper Seletar Reservoir (29 Sep 2013)

The weather was a little overcast but good enough for a trip down to Upper Seletar Reservoir. This is a familiar path that I usually take when I am at Upper Seletar Reservoir. This path is seldom visited by joggers and hence it remained pretty wild, which is wonderful for beetle watching.

The first beetle that greeted me was this Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis) which seemed to be the permanent residents of Upper Seletar Reservoir. This is probably because of the presence of several of its food plant.

The next beetle was this Tiger Beetle which initially was pretty hyper-sensitive to movements. After flying and stopping for a few times, it decided to stay put on this wild cinnamon leaf. I am glad that it remained pretty still for me to take some nice close-up photographs.

Moving further into the path, I was pleasantly surprised to find this first-time-encountered Leaf Mining Leaf Beetle (Gonophora xanthomela).

The tell tale signs of this beetle's presence is its straight feeding tracks on leaves. Here's a photograph of some old tracks on a leaf.

Resting on a shaded leaf was this lovely Leaf Beetle. Its color reminded me of jelly sweets.

Near to the Leaf Beetle were several 2 mm Leaf Beetles. Interesting to find different same size Leaf Beetles on the same plant. All these tiny beetles are first-time-encountered beetles.

Moving further down the path, this colorful Leaf Beetle was resting on a low bush.

Moving on, I came across this commonly encountered Leaf Beetle (Hoplasoma unicolor). Although you can easily find them in Upper Seletar Reservoir, photographing them is another matter altogether as they are super alert to movement. I was fortunate to come across this particular beetle that was so engrossed with its breakfast that it allowed me to take a few photographs of itself.

Moving to an area where there is a sand pit where a number of this Tiger Beetles (Cicindela aurulenta) can be found. This is another permanent resident of Upper Seletar Reservoir, but I fear that they will disappear as the sand pit is being overtaken by grass and weeds.

At the entrance of another trail, I found this first-time-encountered Leaf Beetle. It was hiding in a large patch of vegetation.

The trail was not very productive as it took me a good 15 min of walking before encountering this small 5 mm Leaf Beetle.

After walking for another 15 min without encountering any beetles, my eyes finally caught sight of this lovely patterned Chafer Beetle. This is another first-time-encountered beetle. Fabulous!

Coming to a rotten tree trunk, I finally found this colorful Fungus Beetle. This is the only Fungus Beetle that I encountered through out the trip despite the fact that there are many fallen and rotten logs along the trail.

Just when I am about to end my trip since I have been walking for another 30 minutes without encountering any other beetles, this brightly first-time-encountered beetle appeared. You can imagine how glad I am to have encounter this beetle. Not sure what beetle it is but it looked like it belongs to the Lizard Beetle family.

Moving on and after don't know how long before I encounter this tiny 2 mm beetle. It was so hyper-sensitive to movements that I could not get a nice photograph of it. Here's a blurry photograph of it as a photograph record on what beetles I have encountered. Notice the interesting looking antennae of this beetle.

After walking for another long while without encountering any beetles, I decided to turn back. And on the way back, I encountered this chocolate brown slightly hairy Leaf Beetle. This is the second time that I encounter this type of chocolate brown color Leaf Beetle.

Just before reaching the end of my trip, I found this Leaf Beetle with almost transparent elytra.

The trip has been fruitful with me finding 8 first-time-encounter beetles, but the trip was very long and at times frustrating especially when not encountering any beetles after walking for a long while. Guessed that I will continue to come to this place as long as there are still first-time-encounter beetles to be "discovered".

Morning Walk At Durian Loop (21 Sep 2013)

The weather was perfect for a walk at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR), so I decided to go to the Durian Loop trail at the reserve.

I have been wondering why the trail was called Durian Loop, and I got the answer today. There were many of the small durians found on the ground through out the trail. This could possibly an indication that there was strong wind the night before or the durian trees are not doing very well since durians only drop when they are ripe, and the durians that I come across are definitely far from being ripe.

The first beetle that greeted me was this Net Winged Beetle. Interestingly I am still not able to find the name of this Net Winged Beetle on the internet or in books, even though it is a very commonly encountered beetle.

Resting peacefully on a slightly damp leaf was this lovely Lizard Beetle (Languria mozardi).

Another commonly encountered tiny beetle (~3 mm) sipping on the moisture of the morning dew.

On a tree trunk was this tiny Fungus Beetle (~2 mm) which looked black from the naked eyes.

Passing a large patch of Air Potato plants, I found this colorful Leaf Beetle resting on a Air Potato leaf. I always like the coloration of this beetle.

On a nearby shaded area was this metallic blue Leaf Beetle.

The surprise find for the day was this bright orange Leaf Beetle (Lema quadripunctata) found on some wild ginger leaf.

Looking out of place on a sandy ground was this Fungus Beetle, hiding in a hole with an exposed root.

Further down the trail was this black and yellow Leaf Beetle, staying very still while I photographed it.

On the trail was a large fallen tree trunk where a few of this Fungus Beetle were found.

Resting on some low plants was this interesting looking Leaf Beetle. It is the same coloration as the earlier Leaf Beetle but its appendages were very interesting looking. It looked injured though.

The highlight of the trip was the encounter with this interesting Fungus Beetle. In fact, I was fortunate enough to find two of this beetle.

Moving on, I found a lovely Ladybird Beetle hiding under a leaf.

Near to the Ladybird Beetle was a beetle larvae, most likely to be that of the Ladybird Beetle.

On a recently fallen tree was a Tiger Beetle, busily running up and down the length of the tree log.

On the same log was some tiny (~3 mm) Fungus Weevils. Their coloration matched so well with the log that you would not noticed them until they started to move. This Fungus Weevil is a first time encountered beetle. I particularly like the reddish-brown color at the "neck" of the beetle.

A few centimeters away was another unidentified Fungus Weevil.  This is about the same size as the other Fungus Weevil.

On a sawed side of another fallen tree was a tiny (~2 mm) Fungus Beetle, happily munching away at the tiny fungus that are growing on the log.

Just beside the tree log was this beautiful Net Winged Beetle (Dictyoptera aurora). The red color is so striking, especially when it is on a light green leaf such as this. This one is particularly small at about 8mm. Most of the usual Dictyoptera aurora Net Winged Beetle are much larger (~15 mm).

When it was almost near the end of my trip, I came across this interesting looking beetle. I thought that it is a Chafer Beetle when I was there, but realized that I may be wrong after looking closer to its legs. Its legs looked very much like that of a Dung Beetle. I think it is possibly belongs to the Dung Beetle family.

With this "discovery", I went back to my photograph archive and noticed that I may have wrongly identify another beetle that I thought was a Chafer Beetle.

Anyway, I moved on to another recently sawed tree trunk and found this Checkered Beetle resting motionless on it, despite all the camera flashes.

Just before I exited the trail, I found this common Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) flying around the path, taking flight when there are any moment.

This trip was very fruitful with a total of 21 different types of beetle encountered, with 3 first time encountered beetles. I am glad that besides the beetle encounters, I am also able to get some workout from the walk.

Night Walk At MacRitchie Nature Trail (13 Sep 2013)

Its been a while that I visited the MacRitchie Nature Trail so I decided to check the place out for this trip. The place was in complete darkness when I reached the place. Here's a photograph of the sign the entrance to the nature trail.

The first beetle that greeted me was this 4 mm Darkling Beetle on a tree trunk.

On a nearby plant was this Chafer Beetle. I am not able to identify this commonly identified Chafer Beetle but I am suspecting that it could be the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle as it is often found near or together with the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle. Could it be a sexual dimorphism of the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle?

On a fallen log further down the trail was this Fungus Beetle. This type of Fungus Beetle are commonly found in our nature reserves.

Hiding beneath a dead leave on the same fallen log was this beetle larvae.

On another fallen tree log was this pair of Darkling Beetle.

Moving deeper into the trail, a Long Horned Beetle showed up. It was not apparent why the beetle is this color until it landed on a dead palm leave - see how the color of the beetle matched the color of the dead leaf.

Moving further I found this strange looking critter on a tree trunk. It looked like a beetle pupa. I wondered how the adult would look like.

On another tree was this Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis). It remained pretty still while I was photographing it.

Just a few centimeters from the Fungus Weevil was another smaller (~3 mm) Fungus Beetle.

On the same tree trunk was this small (~2 mm) Darkling Beetle.

On a large fallen log was this 5 mm strange looking beetle. Noticed that the abdomen is shorter than the head and thorax.

On a nearby tree was this tiny (~2 mm) Fungus Beetle.

On a low bush was this lone Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis).

Farther down the trail was this pinkish colored Fungus Weevil.

Next to the Fungus Weevil was this 1 mm black beetle.

On a dead log was this fast moving Checkered Beetle.

Hiding under a palm leaf was a first time encountered Weevil Beetle (~3 mm).

On a tree trunk was a beetle larvae. It looked like the next stage of the commonly seen beetle larvae.

On another dead log was this commonly seen Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis).

On another rotting tree log was this ~10 mm Handsome Fungus Beetle.

On a small plant was this commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis).

Near to the Apogonia expeditionis Chafer Beetle was this brownish Leaf Beetle.

It was almost at the end of the trip that this black Fungus Beetle.

Just before exiting the trail, I found this first time encountered Leaf Beetle.

Next to the Leaf Beetle was another first time encountered Leaf Beetle.

This trip was very fruitful as there were a total of three first time encountered beetles. Wonderful trip indeed.