Night Walk At Tampines Eco Green (29 Apr 2016)

It was more than 3 years that I last visited Tampines Eco Green, and so I decided to go there for the night even though it rained heavily in the early afternoon. When I reached the place, it was still pretty wet and this can only meant that the chances of me finding beetles would be pretty slim.

Here's a photograph of an interesting encounter at the place - a Striped Kukri Snake (Oligodon octolineatus). It has been many years since my last encountered with this particular type of snake.

The first beetle for the trip was a Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) which looked as if it just emerged from the ground not too long, given the mud stains on it.

It was only after some walking before I encountered this metallic colored Leaf Beetle.

I started with the Forest Trail but the name got me wondering as the trail has more tall grass than trees. Among the wet tall grass was this CHafer Beetle (Aprosterna palide) which turned out to be super hyper-active, and it promptly flew off after a few photographs.

More walking and searching among the tall grasses before I found this lone Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) munching on a leaf.

Apart from the name of the trail, I am also very curious as to why the tree that lined the trail were pretty much sterile or critterless. It was quite interesting that I didn't find any Darkling Beetles on the many trees that I checked, until this particular tree where I found a small colony of this 1 mm Darkling Beetle.

More walking before I came across another tree where several of this 2 mm Darkling Beetles were found. Noticed the super tiny greyish-blue critters that were near to the beetle? Not sure if they are Springtails.

I was rather bored due to the lack of beetles, until this curious young cat decided to accompany me for the rest of the journey. It would some times run ahead of me and then would zip between my legs. It would stopped to check out "things" and later run ahead of me. It was pretty entertaining to have this cat around, especially when I was not able to find any beetles despite me being extra thorough when scanning the plants and trees on both sides of the trail.

More walking before I found this Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea) resting on the under a leaf of a low tree.

The last beetle for the trip came as a pleasant surprise and also a fitting end to the trip. I was least expecting to find this lovely colored Darkling Beetle (Strongylium erythrocephalum) on a rotting log.

The trip was worse than expected as I only found 8 different beetles, even though I walked for more than 2 hours, before call it a day.  Nevertheless I was able to test out a newly DIYed, lighter and less bulking flash diffuser. Looking back at the number of beetles I found during the previous trip to the place (3 years ago), I wondered if the dismal results this trip was due to the wet weather or was it the sad of things at the place.