The trail near to the North entrance seemed to be badly infested with this tiny brownish-black ants. There are literally thousands, if not millions, of them moving around the trail and vegetation. Don't be deceived by their tiny size as each one of them gives a nasty bite, and they operate in large groups just like in the photograph. This is what kept me away from the place for so long. I sincerely hoped that NParks will do something about these ants while they are restoring the place, before the infestation spread to the rest of the park.
The first beetle only appeared after a good 15 minutes of walking. It was a Leaf Beetle (Colasposoma auripenne) and it was pretty much a challenge to photograph this particular beetle as besides it being under a leaf, there were ants all over the place. While I focus the camera on the beetle, I would also need to constantly look down to make sure that the ants do not climb onto my boots. Despite me being so cautious about the ants, one of them still managed to go under my T-shirt and gave me a nasty bite, minutes after I have left the spot.
It was another 30 minutes or so of walking before I came across this tiny 2 mm Ladybird Beetle (Cryptogonus orbiculus).
I was about to give up and go home as the place was really very disappointing in terms of finding beetles. Just then I came to a patch of low bushes where I found the first Leaf Beetle (Lema rufotestacea) for the trip.
Energized by the finding of a Leaf Beetle, I persevered on and found a pair of mating Leaf Beetle (Altica cyanea) on a hairy leaf.
Just a stone's throw away was another Leaf Beetle resting on the tip of a blade of lalang grass.
There was so few beetles at the place that even after walking for another long while, I didn't find any beetles. I decided to turn back and go home. Just near to the point where I turned back, I was surprised to find a Click Beetle (Pectocera babai) caught in a spider's web.
It seemed like the place have a number of the Pectocera babai Click Beetle as on the web there were about 5 Pectocera babai Click Beetles.
Near to the Clcik Beetle were several attap trees (Nypa fruticans) that were flowering, and on one of them was this 18 mm Weevil Beetle.
Just then I met a fellow macro photographer who was photographing dragonflies. As I chat up with him, he was also commenting that the number dragonfly was not as many as expected. While we were chatting, my eyes caught hold of a Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) across a small stream. My camera lens is only 60 mm so this is the "best" photograph I can take across the stream. Included here as a record for the trip.
As we continued chatting, at the corner of my eyes I saw this Ladybird Beetle (Henosepilachna implicata) landed on a leaf.
The last beetle for the trip was a Ladybird Beetle (Cryptogonus orbiculus) which was near to the other Ladybird Beetle. While photographing the beetle, it suddenly dawn on me that it could be a case of a sexual dimorphism that this beetle has a black face as compared to the earlier Cryptogonus orbiculus Ladybird Beetle which has a yellow face.
The trip was rather disappointing as the number of beetles encountered was really small even though I spent a much longer time there than usual.
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