Light Trapping At Lim Chu Kang Cemetery (24 Jul 2015)

This Friday trip was special as it would not be my usual find-and-photograph trip. Instead I set up a light trap to attract beetles to photograph. I only used the light trap when I went to Malaysia but have tested it many years ago in Singapore. The result of the test was very bad as expected and hence I have never tried this in Singapore ever since.

 The reason why I am doing this again was because of a request by Reynard, a beetle-loving teenager whom I met online. He has not experienced light trapping before and was curious how to set up a light trap. Despite knowing how it would turn out, I agreed to show Reynard my light trap. My set up has gone through many modifications and has been designed to be portable, but at the expense of stability.

The place that we have chosen to set up the light trap was Lim Chu Kang Cemetery as we were aware that Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) can be found in the area. I have been wanting to photograph it and hence the choice of the location. The Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle used to be very common in Singapore but the number decreased over the years as Singapore became more developed.

Minutes upon turning on the light, many tiny insects started to land onto the white sheet behind the light. In all honesty I am not hopeful to find any beetles and was happy to find this tiny 2 mm brownish beetle on the white sheet. 

On another part of the white sheet was a 2 mm first-time-encountered beetle which I am not sure of its family. The shape of the beetle made me think that it could be a Ground Beetle, but I cannot be sure.

Another first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle was found at the lower part of the white sheet.

Another first-time-encountered beetle was this 2 mm beetle. I am not sure of its family as it looked like a cross between a Chafer Beetle and Dung Beetle.

The biggest beetle attracted by the light trap was a 8 mm Leaf Beetle (Attica cyanea).

While we waited for more beetles to turn up, we were exploring the surroundings but found nothing of interests. When I went back to the light trap to check, I was thrilled to find several of this first-time-encountered Rove Beetle (Paederus riparus). I read about this Rove Beetle and how it can cause serious skin irritations, but have never encounter it until now. I am so glad to be able to photograph it during this trip.

Next to Attica cyanea Leaf Beetle was another first-time-encountered Rove Beetle, about 3 mm in length.

After about 1.5 hours after the light trap was set up, we decided to call it a day given the lousy but not unexpected result. Nevertheless, this is an interesting trip with several first-time-encountered beetles. The trip also brought back fond memories of my light trapping trips in Malaysia.