Night Walk At Dairy Farm Nature Park (27 Oct 2017)

The sky was dark and cloudy over at the southern and eastern part of Singapore so I decided to head north to Dairy Farm Nature Park, knowing that there is a possibility of rain also. When I reached the place, I was glad that the sky cleared up.

Here's a photograph of an interesting large caterpillar encountered at the start of the trip. I am not absolutely sure but it looked like a caterpillar of the Giant Skipper (Erionota torus).

The first beetle of the trip was a pleasant surprise - the frequently encountered but hard to photograph white Ladybird Beetle. There were several of them found under a large Elephant Ear Plant. I really like the eye color of this specimen.

On another Elephant Ear Plant was this lone Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea).

Some distance from the Ant-like Flower Beetle was this large 25 mm Chafer Beetle. It looked like the Phyllophaga marginalis Chafer Beetle but differed in its black coloration at the front part of the beetle. This could possibly be a first-time-encountered Chafer Beetle.

Near to the large Chafer Beetle was another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis), found at the base of a small tree.

Moving into a less visited trail, I am surprised to find many wood piles lining the side of the trail. On one of the wood piles was this 8 mm Click Beetle.

Near to the Click Beetle was a 4 mm Ground Beetle (Dotichoctis striata) running about the tree trunk.

For this trip, I decided not to explore the usual Wallace Trail and focus on both sides of the road leading to the Wallace Education Centre. On a fallen tree next to the path was this large 15 mm Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Encaustes pranenobilis).

Next to the Pleasing Fungus Beetle was a smaller 10 mm Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraspilotus).

Further down the tree truck was this 2 mm beetle, possibly a Darkling Beetle.

The fallen tree used to be a very tall tree probably about 12 meters, and on it were several of this small 2 mm Rove Beetle.

There was a large bracket fungus mushroom on the tree trunk and on it were different Rove Beetles. This was a first-time-encountered Rove Beetle. Pardon the badly taken photograph as it was moving very quickly and disappeared after one camera shot. Of the many beetles that I have photographed, Rove Beetle is one group of beetles that proofed to be a challenge to me.

Another Rove Beetle (Sepedophilus bisignatus) on the same large bracket fungus mushroom.

Moving to another large wood pile, there were several of this 10 mm Darkling Beetle found on it.

On a tree near to the Darkling Beetle were a large group (about 10-15 beetles) of 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

On a moss laden tree was a small 2 mm Fungus Beetle.

After a while of walking I finally reached the turn back point - the Wallace Education Centre. Just then I found this lovely10 mm Darkling Beetle.

Near to the Darkling Beetle was a roundish 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

The highlight for the trip was the encounter with this diurnal Checkered Beetle, still active at night.

The last beetle for the trip was this 5 mm Darkling Beetle on the side of a small tree, trapped under some spider web.

This trip was a bonus as it could have been a washed-out, but fortunately it didn't rain and I was able to carry on with the trip. Besides finding the first-time-encountered beetles, I also get to test out my new flash diffuser set-up. Overall, it was a good trip albeit slightly short given the longer time needed to go to the place for me.