It rained very heavily in the late afternoon and the sky still looked very much like it would rain again. Not wanting to put to waste the efforts that I have put into the redesigning of my light trap, I decided to go to Venus Drive as the place would have a better chance of finding beetles even during wet weather. Here's my light trap mounted on a tripod with a white netting around the UV tube. Effectively, it looked like a blue light lantern.
After setting up the light trap, I decided to do my usual routine of looking for beetles. In any case, it is not good for the eyes to be staring at the UV light. The first beetle encountered was a Chafer Beetle with a a metallic bronze coloration.
The vegetation in the area was very wet and the chances of finding any beetles would be very slim. Sure enough, it was only about 10 minutes of walking before I found this Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus). Noticed that the beetle was also drenched by the rain earlier on.
Coming to a wood pike, I was rather disappointed to find only one of this commonly encountered Darkling Beetle.
More walking without finding any beetles until I came to another wood pile. This time round the fallen tree trunk had several beetles on it. There were a few Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula) which turned out to be rather shy and quickly moved away from the torchlight's light.
Near to one of the Fungus Beetles were several Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta).
And slightly further from the group of Ceropria induta Darkling Beetle was a Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi).
More walking until I found this small Darkling Beetle hiding in a crevice of a tree trunk.
Coming to a fallen tree branch, I was surprised to find this Darkling Beetle.
Coming to the spot where I usually find one of my favorite beetles, White Ladybird Beetle. Without fail, I managed to find it under a leaf. On normal nights, the beetle would have flew off when it detected movements. This night the Ladybird Beetle remained entirely still for me to photograph it, probably due to the wet weather.
Moving to a small tree, I found a few of this mating Darkling Beetle.
On another tree was a similarly small Fungus Beetle.
More walking until I came across this Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta).
More walking until another wood pile where this small 3 mm Darkling Beetle was found.
On the same tree branch was another lovely Darkling Beetle.
Just while I was finishing photographing the Darkling Beetle, a beetle flew and hit my forehead and fell to the ground. Upon closer examination, I found a lighter brown color Chafer Beetle.
Walking down the trail, I came across this Fungus Weevil high up a tree. In order not to miss this beetle in this wet weather, I stretched to photograph this beetle for the purpose of recording the encounters on this trip.
Walking further, I was glad to be able to find this Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis).
The sky was thundering away and I decided to turn back to check on the UV light trap and call it a day. Just when I was walking back towards the light trap, a 5 mm Weevil Beetle crawling on a small tree.
On the same tree was a Rove Beetle, resting in a crevice. It must be due to the wet weather that the beetle remained very still through out the photographing.
With much anticipation, I approached the UV light trap. Much to my disappointment and yet expected, there was only a tiny 2 mm beetle resting on the netting.
The last beetle for the trip was a Fungus Weevil.
This trip was rather disappointing and yet not unexpected because of the rain. I will likely to try this again on days with fairer weather.
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