Morning Walk At Venus Drive (30 Jul 2016)

I have missed my usual weekly macro session for two weeks straight due to the rainy weather. For this week session, I decided to go for a morning walk at Venus Drive since the weather has been pretty wet for the entire week and the chances of finding any beetles would be at Venus Drive.

I was looking forward to the session as I have never tested out my dual-flash macro set-up in the day. With much excitement and anticipation I reached the place and I was surprised to find that the construction works at the place has progressed quite a fair bit compared to the last time I was there. To my great disappointment when I took my first test shot of a fly, the dual flash did not fired. Just then I realised that I have forgotten the master remote trigger. This would be a bummer if not for my backup flash-lite.

Because of the last minute set-up and also the overcast sky, the quality of the photographs taken were not too ideal but suffice for documenting the trip. Here's a photograph of one of the few jumping spiders encountered during the trip.

The first beetle for the trip was a Leaf Beetle (Lema rufotestacea) at some low bushes.

Moving further down the trail, I am glad to find a number of this Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea) on a low tree.

Near to the Ant-like Flower Beetle was a Spiny Leaf Beetle found at a patch of tall grasses. This particular specimen was so skittish that I was not able to get a good photograph of it before it flew away.

On a tree along the trail were several of this beetle larvae. This is a good sign that beetles are still doing well despite the recent odd weather - sometimes very hot and other times rainy.

On a fallen palm tree, I was surprised to find this 5 mm Fungus Weevil that remained motionless while it was being photographed.

On another fallen log was a 12 mm Darkling Beetle. It was rather odd to find this in the day as this type of Darkling Beetle is pretty sensitive to movement and light, even in the night.

Near to the fallen log, I found this lovely Fungus Beetle.

While I walked slowly down the trail, this bright red Net-winged Beetle landed right in front of me on a leaf.

Coming to another fallen log, my hairs stood on ends when I see a trail of these small brown ants. I have mentioned a fair bit about these ants as they packed a nasty bite when they get onto you. I have reported my concerns to NPark about the infestations of this type of ants at the Admiralty Park which seemed to be the worse so far among the various parks in Singapore. Hopefully NPark is doing something about the infestation while it is "renovating" the park.

The impact of the infestation may endangered the lives of others critters found in our parks, which this photograph of a Fungus Beetle being attacked by the ants next to the trail of ants illustrates.

Although I tried my best to quickly photograph the attacked beetle and move away, I was still not spared of several bites up my legs by these reddish brown ants. After being bitten, I was extra careful when I examined another fallen tree log where this Fungus Weevil was found.

Near to the Fungus Weevil was this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus).

Next to the Fungus Beetle was a interesting Fungus Weevil that has a pair of exceptionally long antennae.

Moving further down the trail, I found this lone Leaf Beetle (Graphops curtipennis) on a leaf.

A surprise find was this Darkling Beetle (Phymatosum rufonotatum) on a dead tree branch.

On a leaf nearby was this small 3 mm Weevil Beetle having its breakfast.

On a rubber tree nearby was this Fungus Beetle resting on a leaf.

Running along the length of a fallen log nearby was a Tiger Beetle (Cicindela chrysippe).

Walking down the trail, I came to a spot where several of this white Ladybird Beetle were found. This is one of my favorite beetles, but also an extremely difficult beetle to photograph during the day.

Zipping in and out of some low bushes was this 5 mm first-time-encounter Pintail Beetle.

Flying around at the same spot was this more commonly encountered Pintail Beetle called Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana). Pintail Beetles are usually missed because they looked very much like houseflies when they are flying.

At a patch of Singapore  Rhododendron plant (Melastoma malabathricum) were several of this Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis).

Near to the Leaf Beetle was a tiny 1 mm Leaf Beetle (Eucyclomera nigricollis).

Further down the trail was a dead standing tree where this first-time-encounter Checkered Beetle was found.

Another Checkered Beetle on the same tree.

There were several woodpiles by the side of the trail and on a fresh woodpile was this Ground Beetle (Pericalus tetrastigma) on top of the white sap from the tree.

I was almost near to the end of the trail when this Pintail Beetle was found on a low bush.

An interesting find was this roundish 4 mm Darkling Beetle that was moving about in the leaf litters on the ground.

Near to the exit were several of this 2 mm Darkling Beetles on a small tree.

On another tree were several of this 1 mm Fungus Beetles.

The departing shot for the trip was a odd one - a stack of three Darkling Beetles one on top of the other.

Despite the boo-boo of not bringing the master remote trigger, I was still able to have a good trip albeit the not so ideal photographs taken. Nevertheless, it was a fruitful trip with 2 first-time-encountered beetles found.

Night Walk At Punggol (15 July 2016)

Despite the heavy rain in day, I decided to go back to the new location at Punggol to see how it is like when the weather is wet. One of the interesting encounter at the place was this small 6 mm Praying Mantis.

The first beetle for the trip was this commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis). There were a number of this beetle at the place.

Near to the Apogonia expeditionis Chafer Beetle was another Chafer Beetle.

Moving further to a patch of low Hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta) plant, I found several of this Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) on it.

While I was exploring the new location, I noticed that there were many of this lovely colored Darkling Beetle. I would occasionally encounter one or two specimens of this type of beetle at one location, but on this trip I encountered at least 40 of them. It was so amazing to see half a dozen of them on a rotting log.  Here's a photograph of a pair of mating Darkling Beetle.

Next to the Darkling Beetle was another Darkling Beetle which is matte black in color. This was almost the opposite of the red-legged Darkling Beetle.

Moving to another fallen log, I found this lone Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis).

Coming to an open area, I was surprised to find several of this orange color Leaf Beetle (Lema rufotestacea).

There were a number of big trees around the place and I found this 3 mm Darkling Beetle on one of them.

The highlight of the trip was the encounter of this large 40 mm Long Horned Beetle (Batocera rubus) resting on the buttress root of a large tree. It has been a while that I last encountered this beetle.

On another tree near by was this 4 mm Darkling Beetle.

Next to the Darkling Beetle was another surprise, a Long Horned Beetle (Coptops annulipes).

The open area then led to a wet sandy area where a number of this Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) were found.

The trail later led me back to the place where I visited last week. Not too sure if it is due to the rain, there were a number of this Chafer Beetle (Maladera orientalis) encountered.

Another highlight of the trip was the encounter of this Ladybird Beetle (Coccinella sexmaculata). It was hiding under the folds of a leaf and so I lightly teased it with my left hand while trying very hard to snap as many photographs as possible using my right hand. Sadly, I didn't realize that my dual flash have shifted until the last few photographs before it flew off. This has led to the appearance of deep flash hotspots in majority of the photographs taken.

The last beetle for the trip was this Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea). I initially wanted to stay on slightly longer to see if there are any other beetles around but the plan was disrupted when I was badly attacked by a horde of the small reddish-brown ants. Unlike last week's ant attack, this time round the attack was not only by the "worker ants" but also by the bigger "soldier ants". It was a really painful way to end the trip.

The trip was considerably fruitful with the encounter of the less commonly seen beetles. I will surely come back to this location again when the weather condition is better.

Short Night Walk At Punggol (08 Jul 2016)

I chanced upon a place in Punggol over the week and hence I decided to check out the place with my friend HW. Due to some unforeseen situations, we started our trip almost an hour later and thus making this particular trip much shorter than usual. Here's an interesting ant-mimic spider found on a blade of lalang leaf. It looked so much like the commonly encountered Golden Ant (Polyrhachis illaudata).

The first beetle was encountered at the place where I was waiting for HW. My eyes were drawn to a bunch of ants attacking an insect on the ground. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a closer look at it and I was surprised to find that it was a beetle.

I managed to rescue the beetle and discovered that it is a 6 mm Dung Beetle (Onthophagus phanaeides). What a wonderful way to start the trip.

After some walking, the first beetle that we encountered was a pair of mating Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus).

Near to the Chafer Beetle was a Long Horned Beetle which I initially thought that it was the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle.

While I was checking out a big tree, I noticed some movements at the base of the tree. I initially thought that it was a cockroach but it turned out to be a Darkling Beetle.

As I was scanning through the low vegetation for beetles, this lovely Net-winged Beetle popped out with its orangey-red coloration, against the green leaf. It was also while photographing this beetle that I was badly bitten by the small brown ants that I have been "complaining" about. Pardon the poorly taken photograph as due to the sneak attack by the ants, I was not able to get a proper shot of this beautiful beetle.

The place was full of different types of Chafer Beetles and here are the different ones encountered:

Chafer Beetle (Maladera orientalis).

Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis).

Chafer Beetle (Maladera casternea).

Chafer Beetle (Aprosterna pallide).

Although the trip was exceptionally short, we are still able to find a good number of beetles. This new place looked promising and I would surely go back in the near future.