Night Walk At Lower Peirce Reservoir (29 Jun 2018)

It has been raining for almost the entire week and today it was no exception. It rained in the late afternoon but fortunately the rain stopped when the night began to fall. HW and I have been looking forward to the session and we decided to continue with the plan despite the heavy rain earlier on. As expected, the place was soaked to the bone and we were not hopeful that we would find any beetle for the night. Here is a shot of an interesting looking Painted Chorus Frog (Microhyla butleri) found at the place.

The first beetle for the trip was a 10 mm Fungus Beetle found on a fallen log.

On another fallen log was this lone Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta).

On a small tree nearby was this 2 mm Fungus Beetle.

Further down the trail was another fallen log where this 10 mm Ground Beetle (Physodera eschscholtzii) was found.

The last beetle of the trip was this 25 mm Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Triplatoma gestroi).

It was expected that we would not find many beetles due to the earlier heavy rain. Nevertheless, I am glad that we still managed to find a few beetles despite the rain.  

Night Walk At Windsor Nature Park (22 Jun 2018)

For this week, HW and I decided to go to Windsor Nature Park for our night macro session. Here's a photograph of a adorable looking Lowland Dwarf Gecko (Hemiphyllodactylus typus) which I have not encountered for a long while. This should be the slowest gecko that you can find in Singapore and makes it a very good photography subject.

As usual, the first beetle for the trip was a 3 mm Darkling Beetle found on a tree next to the Windsor Nature Park car park.

Next was likely a Darkling Beetle that I am still trying to find its identity. For this particular specimen, it was surprisingly active and moved about this particular leaf for the entire time when I was photographing it.

Near to the Darkling Beetle was a commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) on a leaf of a creeper vine.

Coming to a sandy patch of the trail, several of this Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) were found resting on some low bushes. At night is the best time to photograph this beetle as it is almost impossible to photograph it with a macro lens in the day due to its hyper-activeness.

On a small fallen tree next to the trail was a commonly encountered 10 mm Darkling Beetle.

On the same fallen tree was another Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta).

On a nearby tree was a lone beetle larva. This is one of the more commonly encountered beetle larvae in our forests and parks.

On the same tree were many of this 2 mm Darkling Beetles.

There were some waist level plants nearby and on one of them was this deep bronze color Chafer Beetle.

Attracted by some huge fallen logs, we decided to take a detour from the main trail and moved into the bushes. On one of the small trees near to the fallen log was this bright 1 mm Fungus Beetle.

On the huge fallen log was this beautiful Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi).

On the same log was a large colony of this Darkling Beetle (Ceropria superba). I was pleasantly surprised to find 20-30 of them on the same log.

Still on the same fallen log was this lone Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis), blended perfectly into its background.

About a meter from the Fungus Weevil was a Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Triplatoma gestroi).

The surprise for the night was the encounter with this large 30 mm Weevil Beetle, found under a fallen tree nearby.

On the ground directly below the Weevil Beetle was a 15 mm Darkling Beetle, resting motionlessly on the leaves litter.

Moving back on the trail, it was not too long that we were attracted by another fallen log. On it there were several of this beetle larvae.

I am very surprised to find a large colony of this small 4 mm Ground Beetle (Pericalus tetrastigma) on the log. Typically, I would find at most 4 or 5 of them on a log, but for this particular spot there are easily 50 over of them spread across the entire length of the fallen log.

Found among the Pericalus tetrastigma Ground Beetles was this lone 8 mm Ground Beetle.

Near to the fallen log was a small tree where this 5 mm Weevil Beetle was found.

On the same tree was this 3 mm Fungus Weevil.

Still on the same tree was this lone 2 mm Darkling Beetle. To the naked eyes, this beetle would appeared as a small black speck on the tree. Only when you zoomed onto it that its true color and pattern appeared.

Moving on to another huge fallen log and the first beetle found on it was this Darkling Beetle with red coloration on its legs.

Interestingly, there were easily 20 of this 10 mm Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis) on the log. This is different from my usual encounters where only 2 or 3 of them were found at one spot.

Still on the same log was this 10 mm Ground Beetle (Physodera eschscholtzii). I particularly like the angle of this shot as it showed the interesting side profile of the beetle.

On the log was this spherical looking beetle from the sub-family Ceratocanthinae.

On the ground next to the Ceratocanthinae beetle was a small hairy 1 mm Fungus Beetle.

The highlight of the trip was this 15 mm Click Beetle (Xanthopenthes bifasciatus) at the base of a small tree next to the trail.

On a small fallen log that lined the trail was this 4 mm beetle (Hyberis araneiformis).

Moving further down the trail, a 25 mm Ground Beetle that looked like a cockroach was found feasting on a patch of fungus on a small tree 

On a small tree nearby was a 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

The last stop was an old "snow tree" where this 30 mm Darkling Beetle (Promethis valga) was found.

On the same tree was this first time encountered 5 mm Chafer Beetle.

Still on the same tree were several of this 3 mm Darkling Beetles.

The last beetle for the trip was this 5 mm Darkling Beetle with a metallic sheen.

This was a fruitful trip where we encountered over 30 different types of beetles, and I am glad to be able to find a first-time-encountered Chafer Beetle.

Night Walk At A Secret Place (08 Jun 2018)

In the last trip to the secret place, HW and I were able to find 2 out of the 3 species of Pitcher Plants found in Singapore. Spurred on by the previous find, we decided to go back to the secret place this week to see if we can find the 3rd Pitcher Plant - Nepenthes ampullaria.

Here's a photograph of a Nepenthes ampullaria found at the secret place.

The first beetle for the trip was a Ground Beetle found while waiting for HW.

There were a number of huge fallen trees at the place and there were many beetles on it. Here's a Darkling Beetle (Ceropria superba) which appear black until the camera flash brought out the golden markings on its elytra.

Another Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta) on the same log.

Near by were several of this 10 mm Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus politus) on the same log.

Interestingly, there was a whole colony of this 15 mm Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Triplatoma gestroi) found on the tree.

There were also several of this red-legged Darkling Beetle on the log.

Near to the underside of the log was a 5 mm Ground Beetle (Physodera eschscholtzii) which appeared black to the naked eyes. The metallic blue lining only appear when the camera flash was on it.

Still on the same log was this lovely patterned 3 mm Fungus Beetle.

The highlight for the trip was the encounter of this 15 mm Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus marginatus), which I have not encountered for a very long while.

Another Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraspilotus) was also on the log.

On a small vine next to the log was a lone 10 mm Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus).

Moving on to another smaller fallen tree, several of this 10 mm Darkling Beetle were on it.

On the same log was this familiar and yet different 15 mm Ground Beetle (Catascopus facialis). It looked very much like the Catascopus dalbertisi Gound Beetle, except that it is much smaller in size and its pronotum is metallic bluish-green in color. Catascopus dalbertisi Ground Beetle has a metallic bronze coloration on its pronotum.

Near by was this lone Fungus Beetle (Episcapha xanthopustulata).

Near by was another small fallen log where this 25 mm Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Encaustes praenobilis).

While we were searching for the Nepenthes ampullaria Pitcher Plant, HW found this 5 mm Fungus Beetle on a blade of leaf.

Near to the Fungus Beetle was another fallen tree where this 25 mm Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Micrencaustes lunulata) was found.

On the same fallen log was a dead leaf where this 3 mm Darkling Beetle was resting on it.

After finding the Nepenthes ampullaria Pitcher Plant, we decided to call it a day and just then I found this interesting looking 10 mm Fungus Beetle (Amphisternus vomeratus) resting on a leaf.

Just as we are about to reach the "exist" of the place, I found this lovely patterned beetle larva on a small tree. I wondered what beetle would it turn out to be.

The last beetle for the trip was a commonly seen Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) found on a Singapore Rhododendron (Melastoma malabathricum) plant.

This trip was a fruitful one. Apart from finding the rarely encountered Nepenthes ampullaria Pitcher Plant, I am glad to be able to find about twenty different species of beetle.