Morning Walk At Venus Drive (27 Dec 2013)

The weather was slightly overcast but it looked like it will clear up pretty soon, so I decided to go to Venus Drive for some beetle actions after about two weeks since did my usual walks. The choice of Venus Drive is to be sure that I will find some beetles despite the weather condition. Just as I have expected the vegetation were very wet, probably due to the heavy rain the night before or may be even during dawn.

The first beetle that greeted me was a Spiny Leaf Beetle that was trying to hide from my camera flashes by hiding under a blade of grass.

Moving to the area where I would usually find Leaf Beetles, this Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) was seen resting on a air potato leaf.

Near by to the Lema diversa Leaf Beetle was this lovely yellow colored Leaf Beetle (Lema rufotestacea). Interestingly I was not able to find any of the metallic blue Leaf Beetle (Lema cyanella).

Moving into the Venus Drive trail, this small 5 mm Net-winged Beetle. I usually find this type of beetle near to rotting logs as their food is probably the fungus that grew on the logs.

On a small bracket fungus growing on the rotting log was a hyper-active beetle larvae. It was pacing up and down the bracket fungus, making photographing it a challenge.

On another rotten log that showed signs of wild boar activities (part of the log was ripped off). Sadly, I found the remains of a few Bess Beetles (Aceraius grandis) which may the work of the wild boars.

Moving further down the trail, I noticed something moving on a leaf and found this interesting looking Weevil Beetle.

Coming to the usual clearing along the trail, I found a number of Episcapha quadrimacula Fungus Beetle feasting on the newly grown fungus mushrooms.

On another fallen tree log in the area was a group of this Handsome Fungus Beetle.

Moving quickly near to the Handsome Fungus Beetles was this small (~ 3 mm) lovely patterned Fungus Beetle.

On another tree log were a number of white fungus mushrooms and on them were a number of 2 mm Rove Beetles. This is a first-time-encountered beetle.

The clearing area is usually very fruitful in finding beetles but due to the rainy season, the number of mosquitoes have increased tremendously. Usually there are only one or two mosquitoes at the place but this time round they came out in swarms with me as a human buffet. The mosquitoes were too much for me to handle (as I usually don't use insect repellent on my walks) and I decided to move off quickly from the area.

Coming to a plant with what looked like an insect poo, I found this first-time-encountered Tumbling Flower Beetle.  It remained pretty still for me to photograph it.

Moving further down the trail, I came to a plant where I found several of this Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis).

A surprise find was this bronze colored Leaf Beetle (Graphops curtipennis). It has been a while I last came across this beetle and hence my pleasant surprise when I encountered it today.

Near by on a fish-tail palm was this tiny 2 mm beetle. At a glance it looked like insect poo one would commonly find on leaves.

Moving to a rotten tree stump, several of this Fungus Beetle which looked very like the Episcapha quadrimacula Fungus Beetle, which differs in the shape of the hind yellow spots.

Not much of a surprise, I found this 3 mm beetle that one would usually find on leaves after rain.

The highlight of the trip was this small 3 mm first-time-encountered Ant-like Flower Beetle.

Moving on, I found this lovely Net-winged Beetle resting on a hairy leaf.

Near by to the Net-winged Beetle was a Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana) on a rattan plant leaf sunning itself.

Not too far down the trail was a 2 mm Ladybird Beetle (Scymnus kansanus).

At a shaded area of the trail, a lovely metallic blue Tiger Beetle was seen running up and down along a fallen tree.

On a tree nearby was this beautifully colored beetle larvae.

It was almost near the end of the trail that I found a number of this tiny 2 mm Fungus Beetles busying themselves on a moss cover tree trunk.

At the base of a tree, I found this small 3 mm beetle clinging on to a blade of grass. This is a first-time-encountered beetle. I do not know which family it belongs to.

Just when I was almost out of the Venus Drive trail, dark clouds started to gather overhead and it looked like it will rain any moments. Not wanting to miss out any other beetles, I decided to check out a small patch of low grass bushes even though it was about to rain. I am glad that I made the detour as I managed to find this pretty orange colored Net-winged Beetle. Just when I am done photographing the beetle, the rain drops started to fall and thus ended my Venus Drive trip.

The trip was very fruitful with 4 first-time-encountered beetles even though it was after a heavy rain.