Night Walk At Pasir Ris Town Park (20 Jan 2017)

It rained in the day but my friend HW and I decided to continue with our plan to go to Pasir Ris Town Park for our macro photography session. Apart from the beetles,

When we reached the place I was glad to find the place slightly damp and not wet as expected. The highlight of the trip was the encounter of this White-spotted Slug Snake (Pareas margaritophorus) which is not supposed to be indigenous to Singapore but accidentally introduced. This is the second time that I came across this snake, with the first one encountered along Mandai Road many years back. This particular specimen looked well fed and it was not surprising given the many slugs that were at the place when we were there.

As expected, the first beetle for the trip was a Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) on a blade of a tall grass.

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

Before the trip, we were expecting to find Chafer Beetles for the initial part of the the route and sure enough, we found more Chafer Beetles as we move towards the Pasir Ris Town Park. Here's a photograph of a pair of mating Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea).

Further down the route was this brownish Chafer Beetle which I previously thought to be the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle (but I no longer think it is since the time I encountered a mating pair of this beetle).

Another highlight of the trip was this lovely Ladybird Beetle (Heteroneda reticulata). For a moment when I encountered this specimen, I thought I have finally encounter one of the beetles on my target list to photograph - Harmonia testudinaria Ladybird Beetle, which looked very similar to the Hereoneda reticulata Ladybird beetle at a cursory glance. A simple differentiation between the two would be the markings on the pronotum. Although this is not the Harmonia testudinaria Ladybird Beetle, it was still a wonderful find for the trip.

On a small tree near to the Ladybird Beetle was a 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

There were several Ladybird nymphs encountered on the trip and this is one of them which was less active among those that we have encountered that night.

Next to the Ladybird nymph was a small 3 mm Leaf Beetle which I have not encountered for a long while. Sadly it was in an odd position to get a good shot of it.

Coming to a small patch of Clidemia hirta plants, I was glad to find this Chafer Beetle (Anomala variegata) resting on a leaf.

Unlike places like Venus Drive or Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, the place rarely has any fallen log along the route that we take at Pasir Ris Park and hence finding a fallen log there was a treat. Several of this large 20 mm Darkling Beetle (Eucyrtus anthracinus) was found on the log.

After some walking, we finally reached the spot where we usually find colonies of Golden-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta). We were glad to still be able to find that the colonies were doing well at the place.

All the beetles encountered so far were the usual Chafer Beetle and Darkling Beetle, hence I was thrilled when HW call out to me that he found a Long Horned Beetle. At a glance, the beetle didn't look very interesting until I examined its photographs at home and noticed that there were some markings on its pronotum. Also, this turned out to be a first-time-encountered Long Horned Beetle.

On a small tree nearby was a small 1 mm Fungus Beetle which was in a difficult position to get a good photograph of it.

On another tree nearby was this 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

We were almost at the end of our usual route and on a low ground creeper was this Sweet Potato Weevil (Cylas fornicarius).

Nearby was another Chafer Beetle resting on a low bush.

A surprise find was this Fungus Beetle (Amblyopus vittatus) found on a blade of lalang grass.

The last beetle for the trip was this Click Beetle (Pectocera babai) on a Fish-tail Palm leaf.

The trip was fruitful compared to the recent trip that we had at Venus Drive. I am also glad to be able to find a first-time-encountered Long Horned Beetle on this trip.

Night Walk Along Punggol Road (13 Jan 2017)

The sky looked like it may rain so I decided to go to the near by Punggol Road for my regular macro photography session. It has been a long while since I last walked there and I am eager to see what nature still remained after the recent months of developments around the Punggol area.

Here's a photograph of a Fireweed (Erechthites valerianifolia) which surprisingly was in abundance around the "disturbed" area near to the newly developed facilities.

The first beetle encountered were a pair of Leaf Beetles found among the leaves of the Sea Hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum) at the edge of the mangrove.

No beetle was encountered along Punggol Road until I moved into a disturbed forested area where several of this Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) were found on a low bush.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a Ladybird Beetle (Henosepilachna implicata) resting on a leaf near to the Chafer Beetles.

About a meter away from the Ladybird Beetle was a low bush where several of this Leaf Beetle (Altica cyanea) were found. It has been quite a while that I last encountered this beetle.

After photographing the Leaf Beetle, I was so glad to find this Ladybird Beetle just centimeters away. It looked like the Epilachna admirabilis Ladybird Beetle but differs slightly in the position of the spots.

Moving further down the path I found this Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) feasting on a low plant.

Near to the Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) was another Chafer Beetle (Aprosterna pallide).

Just meters from the end of the path I was surprised to find a fallen tree with this large 25 mm Darkling Beetle (Eucythus anthracinus) on it.

Near to the Darkling Beetle on the same fallen tree was this Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis).

I am saddened by the massive development that is going on at the place which seemed to have decimated the once rich nature at Punggol. Nonetheless, I am still glad to be able to find some beetles on this trip even though the number was lower than expected.

Night Walk At Venus Drive (06 Jan 2017)

It rained last Friday and hence my friend HW and I was eagerly looking forward to catching some macro-photography actions this week. Around the later part of the afternoon, my heart sank when I saw dark clouds gathering but thankfully the sky cleared up when evening approaches.

When we reached the place, we decided to give our usual route a miss and take another route that has heavy human traffic in the day time. Here's an interesting critter encountered during the trip - an orange color Harvestman.

For this trip, I was testing out my twin flash set-up which at the end of the day still required a fair bit of tweaking in order to give me the results that I am looking for. Meanwhile, please bear with the not so good photographs taken on this trip.

The first beetle encountered for this trip was a 2 mm Darkling Beetle, commonly found at night on tree trunks.

While I was tweaking the flash set-up, HW called out to me and showed me this beetle. The identity of this beetle has alluded me for a while and I am still unclear what beetle is this. Do drop me a note if you know what family this beetle belongs to.

Not much actions until I came across this 10 mm Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta) resting on a blade of grass.

While I was photographing the Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta), HW called out and showed me a lovely Long Horned Beetle (Aeolesthes holoserviceus) which I have missed.

More walking without finding any beetle and I was glad to find this beetle larva on a small tree.

On the same tree was this pair of 2 mm Darkling Beetles.

The track was rather muddy and we have to take extra care in order not to end up with muddy boots and shoes. While we navigate gingerly through the pathway, I was happy to be able to find this Ground Beetle hiding on a small leaf.

More walking without finding any beetle and as I was toying with the idea to call it a day, several of this small 5 mm Darkling Beetle were found on a small tree.

We were almost wanting to turn back when I found this first-time-encounter Ground Beetle (Neocoptodera tetrapilota).

While I was photographing the Ground Beetle, HW found this lovely Darkling Beetle on a low bush.

More walking without finding another beetle until this small 1 mm Fung Beetle, found on a small tree.

On the same tree was this 3mm commonly encountered Darkling Beetle.

Just when we decided to turn around, this 15 mm  False Click Beetle was found at the base of a tree.

As we were walking back to the entrance, I found this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraspilotus) on a leaf.

Less than a meter away, HW found a Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Micrencaustes lunulata) feasting on a small toadstool. This was the last beetle for the trip.

Although the number of beetles encountered was not as expected, I am glad to be able to find a first-time-encountered Ground Beetle. From the number of beetles found for this trip, which was only about half of the usual number of beetles we found at Venus Drive, we decided not to take this route again when we next visit Venus Drive.