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Sunday 27 April 2014

Morning Walk At Dairy Farm Nature Park (26 Apr 2014)

The weather looked wonderful and I decided to go to the Dairy Farm Nature Park for a morning walk. It has been a while since I last went there as the car park there was unusually crowded.

I started with the mountain bike trail that leads to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the path was full of small durians, possibly dropped due to the thunder storms that we were having nowadays. From the look of the size of the small durians, it should be durian season soon, just like the last durian season trip that I made ( http://beetlesg.blogspot.sg/2013/11/night-walk-at-btnr-durian-loop-trail-22.html ).


The first beetle that I found was this small beetle that usually come out after rain. I was surprised to find it out walking about on a leaf as they would usually hide during this time.


Next to the small beetle was a big tree with many of these small 2 mm Fungus Beetle.


Moving further down the path, I saw what I thought was the usual orange-black Fungus Beetle that I often encounter on my trips. Upon closer look it turned out to be a first-time-encountered beetle. It flew away after two shots.


One of the reasons for this trip was for the fact that this place has many types of Tiger Beetle and I am hoping to get some better shots of them with my current macro setup since previous photographs taken were not very satisfying.  As I carefully scan the vegetation for beetles, this Tiger Beetle (Therates dimidiatus) flew right in front of me. I so glad that the longer zoom of my current macro setup allowed me to take a better photograph of this skittish beetle.


On a fallen log nearby was this pair of Darkling Beetles. I am surprise to find them out in the day as they are mainly nocturnal.


Moving quickly on the same log were several of this Ground Beetle (Pericalus tetrastigma).


A while later I found this Fungus Beetle resting on a leaf under some shade. This was the type of orange-black Fungus Beetle that I mentioned earlier on.


On another fallen log, I found several Fungus Weevils.




One of the highlights of the trip came when I turn into the Wallace Trail. This beetle is about 25 mm in size and was resting under some foliage shade. Not sure what type of beetle is this.


The next first-time-encountered beetle that I found almost make my heart skip a beat. It was a Leaf Rolling Beetle that I have been looking out for a long while.


Near to the Leaf Rolling Beetle was this first-time-encountered Leaf Beetle. It was hiding from the sun under a leaf. At a glance it looked like the regular orange colored Leaf Beetle, but upon closer look it differs in the hairy elytra.


Dairy Farm Nature Park has many Tiger Beetles and one of the  most common one around is this Cicindela aurulenta Tiger Beetle that you can find around the path if you pay particular attention along the path.


Moving to an open area, a Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) was seen on a leaf under some shade.


The next surprise came when I was at a patch of  Spear grass (imperata cylindrica) where I found this first-time-encountered Weevil Beetle.


Moving back to the shaded path, I found a first-time-encountered small 1 mm Leaf Beetle on a leaf on the side.


Moving to a fallen log, I found one of my favorite Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus pardalis).


Near to the Fungus Beetle was another surprise find, an odd-looking Fungus Beetle clinging to a thin tree branch.


On a tree nearby I found this lovely looking beetle larvae.


Hiding in some shade was this Leaf Beetle (Hoplasoma unicolor). It has been a while since I last encountered this type of beetle.


While I was walking down the path, a white color speck flew under a leaf. In my mind I thought it could be the white Ladybird Beetle that I like. Out of curiosity I looked under the leaf and found this white Ladybird. What a pleasant surprise!


Moving closer to the exit, I was glad to be able to find these two colorful Fungus Beetles near to each other.




I was out of the trail and move towards the Visitor Education Center and found this Weevil Beetle clinging to one of the shutters at the side of the building.


Near to the Visitor Education Center was a pile of chopped wood and I decided to take a detour before leaving the place. And to my surprise I found a pair of first-time-encountered Net-winged Beetle on the logs.


Among the logs was a Fungus Weevil with a lovely pinkish color pattern on its elytra.


The last beetle before I left the place was this shiny Fungus Beetle.


The trip was a surprisingly fruitful with several first-time-encountered beetles and I am so glad to have make the trip. I am especially happy to have encountered the Leaf Rolling Beetle that I have been searching out for a while.

6 comments:

  1. Have u ever seen a local beetle with the mask of a mans face on the back!! I found them in a bush under the mrt track near kembangan

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    1. Hi Stuly,
      I believed you are referring to this ( http://www.butterfly-designs.com/catacanthus_incarnatus.htm ). Yes, I came across this before. It is not a beetle (order Coleoptera) but a true bug (order Hemiptera). They come in different shape and sizes, and very often colorful. The key difference between a beetle and a true bug is in the way the latter feeds - true bugs have sharp proboscis and pierce their food. Beetles on the other hand uses its mouth to chew at their food.

      One of the more commonly seen True Bug in Singapore is the Cotton Stainer (Dysdercus decussatus) which spot a lovely orangy-red coloration (http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/guidebooks/text/2013.htm). True Bugs are pretty harmless even when handled, but do be aware that they would give off pungent smell that stays on you for a long while. This is also why they are often call Stink Bug in Singapore, because of the smell they give off.

      David

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    2. Hi David
      Thanks for the really useful reply on the Man Faced Stinkbug. I wonder if resembles a mans face by chance or if it evolved specially to mimick a mans face so as to scare off predators. After all what could be more scary than the deadliest species on this planet ? It's so bright, there's no attempt at camouflage so it's probably mimicry.







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    3. Hi Stuly,
      You are welcomed.

      The resemblance is probably coincidental unless you consider looking like Elvis would scare the daylight out of a predator. Joking :P

      But seriously, mimicry would usually to mimic other more aggressive species, just like the Long Horned Beetle (Sclethrus amoenus) looking like the ferocious (in insect world) Tiger Beetle (Neocollyris celebensis).

      I happened to have photographs of both in one of my post -
      http://beetlesg.blogspot.sg/2013/11/morning-walk-at-upper-seletar-reservoir.html

      As for the bright colors, it is usually to advertise to potential predators that it is poisonous or 'distasteful', which is true for the case of a stink bug.

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  2. Wow, it's so cool to see how beetles actually differ from eachother aesthetically, I had them all as looking similar in my head!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I thought so too until I started to examine them closer. When I first started photographing beetles, the Fungus Beetle with the yellow spots all looked the same. It was only later that I realized that there may be subtle differences between them when I examine the photographs closer.

      It is interesting that some look so similar to each other and yet they are different species in the same family. For example the Leaf Beetle (Oulema sayi/Lema sayi) looked so much like the Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) besides the the black dot on its thorax.


      http://beetlesg.blogspot.sg/2013/08/a-quick-morning-walk-at-venus-drive-24.html

      After the realization, I would now examine the photographs closely to ensure that I don't miss out any first-time-encountered beetles.

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