Here's a photograph of grasshopper resting under a blade of grass after molting.
The first beetle was a small 3 mm Darkling Beetle found on a small tree that lined the car park leading into Venus Drive trail.
Not too sure if it was because of the hot and dry weather or what, I was surprised to find few tens of this small 3 mm Darkling Beetles all over the trees by the side of the car park.
On another tree with the same kind of Darkling Beetle was a beetle larvae, presumably the larvae of the Darkling Beetle given the color and pattern of the larvae.
On another tree, I found this interesting "stuff" which looked like the eggs of the Darkling Beetles that were found on the trees.
Moving away from the small trees, I came to a patch of tall lalang grass where this lovely Click Beetle (Pectocera babai) was found.
Near to the Click Beetle were several large Elephant Ear Plants where this Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea) was found under one of the leaves.
On a tree branch was this large 8 mm Darkling Beetle. This type of Darkling Beetle are commonly encountered and often missed because of its color and size.
The place was bone dry even though the vegetation was still very much healthy looking. I was surprised to find several small colony of Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) along the trail.
My eyes caught sight of some movements at the base of a tree and found this small 3 mm beetle larvae. This particular specimen was so active that I was not able to get very good shots of it.
Near to the beetle larvae was this 15 mm Darkling Beetle.
Coming to a fallen tree, I found this exceptionally skittish Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi) that ran off after one photograph.
On the same fallen tree were several of this Rove Beetle which promptly went into hiding upon detecting lights shining on them.
On another fallen tree nearby was a lovely Darkling Beetle hiding on the underside of the log. It was a challenge photographing it due to its odd position.
On the same fallen tree was another commonly encountered 10 mm Darkling Beetle.
Moving further into the trail, a small 4 mm Fungus Weevil was found on the side of a small tree.
On a palm leaf near to the Fungus Weevil was a Fungus Beetle (Amblyopus vittatus) actively moving around the leaf, probably disturbed by my camera flashes.
Coming to a wood pile, I found several of this small 2 mm beetle likely to be Fungus Beetle, on a piece of broken log.
Opposite to the wood pile was a small tree where this roundish 5 mm Darkling Beetle was found.
On a small tree further down the trail was this small 4 mm Ground Beetle (Minuthodes multisetosa) hiding in a crevice in the tree.
As mentioned earlier that the place was bone dry, it also meant that the forest floor was littered with dried up leaves. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Darkling Beetle resting on one of these dried leaves.
The highlight of the night was the encounter of this large 25 mm Weevil Beetle on the side of a large tree. An interesting characteristics of Weevil Beetle is that they would drop off from their perch when they felt threatened. This was what this beetle did and it took me several minutes to find it again after it fell to the ground, due to its coloration and pattern which blended well with the leave litters on the ground.
On another tree nearby was this small beetle larvae high up the tree that gave me a bit of stretching.
Close to the beetle larvae was a first-time-encountered 4 mm Fungus Weevil found at the base of a small tree.
On the same tree was a small odd-looking beetle larvae. Not sure if it is alive or dead.
A stone's throw away was another better looking beetle larvae.
At the base of a small tree was a small 5 mm Click Beetle (Xanthopenthes schawalleri) hiding in a crevice.
I am quite surprised that although the place was bone dry, I was still able to find beetles. Here's a small 5 mm Martinezostes sp. beetle on a small log.
Near to the Martinezostes sp. beetle was a small 8 mm Weevil Beetle. This particular specimen was pretty calm and didn't fall off when I was photographing it.
On the same tree with the Weevil Beetle was a tiny 1 mm Fungus Beetle.
Just about 50 meters from the exit was this Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis) at the base of a tree.
The last beetle was a chanced find as I was not looking for it but was attracted to a tiny fly near to it. This Leaf Beetle (Hemipyxis semiviridis) was found just a few centimeters from the fly.
The trip was exceptionally fruitful even though the place was bone dry. What is noticeably missing were the Eumorphus sp. Fungus Beetles which tend to be hard to find during dry seasons in the past. This trip also taught me a lesson of making sure that my macro rig should be ready to go at all times, as there were a lot badly taken photographs from this trip due to the last minute put-together macro rig.
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