Night Walk At Punggol Waterway Park (19 Aug 2016)

For this week's night walk I decided to go to the Punggol Waterway Park. When I reached the place, I was taken aback by the horde of people gathered at the park. Yes, the Pokemon Go craze has hit Punggol Waterway Park!

Thankfully the place that I am going is far from the Pokemon Stop and I was able to do my macro-photography in peace. The first beetle for the trip was a Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea).

The spot that I was at was full of knee-high grass. I am surprised to find several type of Chafer Beetle munching on the grass. Here's a Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) working hard on a blade of grass.

Near to the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle was another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis).

The highlight of the trip was the encounter with this lovely Ladybird Beetle (Coelophora inaequalis).

A stone's throw away was another surprise find-  a Ladybird Beetle (Epilachna admirabilis).

Further away from the Ladybird Beetle was a Leaf Beetle. At a cursory glance, it looked like the Lema diversa Leaf Beetle. Upon closer examination while preparing the photographs for this blog, I noticed that the front legs are reddish-orange in color, which is lacking in Lema diversa Leaf Beetle. Also, the elytra of this beetle is black as compared to the bluish color of the Lema diversa Leaf Beetle.

The place was exceptionally wet and hence the number of beetles encountered was pretty miserable. After a bit of walking without encountering any beetle, this Chafer Beetle (Maladera orientalis) was a welcome sight.

The next beetle was a Leaf Beetle that looked very much like the entirely orange color Leaf Beetle, except for the reddish elytra of the beetle.

The last beetle for the trip was an orange Leaf Beetle that looked like the previous Leaf Beetle except that it is entirely orange.

Although the number of beetles encountered on this trip was small, I am glad to be able to find two Ladybird Beetles. The small number of beetles found could possibly due to the surprisingly wet vegetation. I will likely to come back to this place as it holds potential of yielding more beetles,

Night Walk At Venus Drive (12 Aug 2016)

After last week boring mangrove walk, my friend HW and I decided that we stick to the tried-and-tested Venus Drive for this week's walk. Here's a photograph of a web of spiderling found while under a fallen tree.

The first beetle for the trip was a 3 mm Darkling Beetle found on a small tree at the car park entrance.

What attracted my attention to the Darkling Beetle was this small 2 mm Ground Beetle, which eluded me for a while until it decided to stay still for a long enough moment for me to catch a few shots of it.

Next to the 3 mm Darkling Beetle were several of this roundish 3 mm Darkling Beetles.

On another tree was a 1 mm beetle larvae.

On the same tree was a large 5 mm roundish Darkling Beetle.

Along the path leading to the trail was a patch of Elephant Ear Plant and on it was a 3 mm Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea).

At the entrance of the trail was a 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

Not far from the entrance was a Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) sleeping on a fern leaf.

On a small tree nearby was a 1 mm Fungus Beetle.

On the same tree was this 2 mm Fungus Beetle moving actively on the tree trunk.

Further down the trail, there was a broken tree trunk with several of this Fungus Weevil on it.

Next to the broken tree trunk was a fallen tree and on it were several of this 10 mm Darkling Beetle.

On the same fallen tree was a lovely metallic color Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi).

On an adjacent fallen tree trunk was a Darkling Beetle (Ceropria superba).

Moving to a rotten tree by the side of the trail, HW found a colony of this small 3 mm Rove Beetle resting in a cluster of bracket fungus mushroom.

Near to the Rove Beetle was a long time didn't encountered Darkling Beetle (Cryphaeus gazelle).

Moving along, I was pleasantly surprised to find this Long Horned Beetle (Epepeotes luscus) at the base of a small tree.

A stone's throw from the Long Horned Beetle were several Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) feasting on a small plant.

On a mid size tree was several of this 3 mm Sap Beetle.

On the same tree were also several of this 2 mm Darkling Beetle.

At the base of the tree was a pile of wet mud and near to it was a small Martinezostes sp. beetle.

Near by from the tree was a fallen tree where this lone Rove Beetle was found motionless on it. It is pretty rare to find Rove Beetle remained motionless as they tend to run about when they detect lights shining on them.

Walking further, I was glad to find this lovely Leaf Beetle (Hemipyxis semiviridis) on a leaf just by the side of the trail.

At the base of a large plant was a metallic colored Chafer Beetle.

On a small tree next to the Chafer Beetle was this 3 mm Fungus Beetle. Just as I was photographing this beetle, I suddenly felt unwell and decided to call it a day.

The number of beetles found on this trip was good and it was sad that I suddenly felt ill, else I believed we would have encounter even more interesting beetles on this trip.

Night Walk At Pasir Ris Park (05 Aug 2016)

I was wondering what sort of beetles will I find at the mangrove and so I decided to head for the Pasir Ris Park's mangrove for the night macro photography session. Here's a photograph of a Oriental Whip Snake (Ahaetulla prasina) found at the mangrove.

The first beetle for the trip was a commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus). There were several of this beetle encountered during the trip.

Near to the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle was another Chafer Beetle hidden under some low bushes.

Walking further down the trail, another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) was found on a half eaten leaf.

The surprise find for the night was this Tortoiseshell Beetle (Laccoptera nepalensis).

Near to the Tortoiseshell Beetle was a colony of this lovely orange color Leaf Beetle. It was interesting to find so many of them in one location.

Just next to the colony of Leaf Beetle was a lovely Ladybird Beetle (Heteroneda recticulata).

Moving closer to the mangrove, I found several of this small 5 mm bronze color Leaf Beetle.

Reaching the end of the stretch of low vegetation, this Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea) was found hiding under a hairy leaf.

At the edge of the low vegetation was this skittish Sweet Potato Weevil (Cylas formicarius), which flew off after only two photographs of it.

The low vegetation gave way to a row of small trees that lined the walking path and on one of the trees was this lone 1 mm Fungus Beetle.

On another tree was this Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis). I am surprised to find it on a healthy tree as they were usually encountered on fallen logs or dead trees.

On the same tree was this 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

Just a stone's throw from the entrance of the mangrove boardwalk was this Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta). I always enjoy photographing Tiger Beetles at night as they remained very still and thus allowing very close macro photographs to be taken.

I was not expecting to find many beetles at the mangrove and sure enough, I only find this type of small 4 mm Darkling Beetle on the boardwalk railings and no other beetles.

The last beetle for the trip was a Spiny Leaf Beetle found on a blade of grass near to another entrance.

Although the walk at the mangrove was pretty boring as there are not many critters encountered besides the Weaver Ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) which could be seen all over the mangrove boardwalk, the trip is still a fruitful one as I am able to photograph a few interesting beetles and to test out my twin-flash macro-setup.