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Showing posts with label Bark Beetle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bark Beetle. Show all posts

Saturday, 3 January 2015

Night Walk At Venus Drive (02 Jan 2015)

The weather was dry and I decided to go to Venus Drive to have a walk to see if I can find any first-time-encountered beetles. An interesting sight at the place was this Banded Bull Frog (Kaloula pulchra) halfway up the trunk of a tree. Amazing thing about this frog is that despite its plump body, it was able to climb up the tree.


The first beetle was found on a small tree at the car park entrance. It is a Darkling Beetle and is about 5 mm in size.


On another small tree nearby was a small 2 mm Fungus Beetle. Next to the beetle were several balls which could possibly be its eggs.


On another tree was another tiny 2 mm black colored beetle. I initially thought that it is the same type of beetle as above. When I zoomed in with my camera, I am pleasantly surprised to find a first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle.


Moving to a patch of elephant ear plant, I was surprised to find a first-time-encountered Long Horned Beetle. It was rather skittish and dropped from its perch just after two photographs.


On the underside of one of the elephant ear leaves was a few Ant-like Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea).


On the same leaf was a brightly colored Ladybird Beetle (Chilocorus circumdatus).


A Chafer Beetle was found resting on a low bush near to the Ladybird Beetle.


I was hoping to find some sleeping Leaf Beetles, so I went over to a small grass mound where I usually find Leaf Beetles in the day. Sadly not a single Leaf Beetle can be found. Instead I found this tiny 2 mm first-time-encountered beetle. It probably belongs to the family of Toe-winged Beetle.

On a low tree were several different Chafer Beetles, all having a great time feasting on its leaves.






At the entrance to the Venus Drive trail were several Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta). This is pretty unusual as finding them at night previously was a treat, as compared to now where you can find them on almost every plant around the spot.


On a tree nearby was a nicely colored beetle larvae.


Coming to a fallen log, several of this Darkling Beetle (Ceropria superba) were on it.


On the same log were several of this Darkling Beetle.


On a lichen laden tree were two different Fungus Weevils.




At the base of the same tree as the Fungus Weevils was a small 3 mm Darkling Beetle.


Next to the Darkling beetle was a tiny 1 mm Fungus Beetle.


Moving to a woodpile, a beetle larvae was seen moving actively on one of the rotten branch.


Along the trail was what looked like the common black Apogonia expeditionis Chafer Beetle. Upon closer look, it turned out that it has a much broader body and its coloration is not black but dark bronze in color.


On a fallen log at the "opening" was a poor small 5 mm beetle (Martinezostes sp.) on a fallen log. It must have felt really lousy with all these mites on it.


On a woodpile nearby was a Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraspilotus).


On the same log was this tiny 1 mm beetle, possibly a Fungus Beetle.


On a tree further down was this lone 3 mm Darkling Beetle. The number of this small Darkling Beetle seemed to have dwindled as they used to be in great abundance at the place.


On another tree nearby was this first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle. This looked very much like the first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle earlier on but differs in its color pattern slightly.


At the base of the same tree was this bright orange 2 mm beetle. Not sure if this is a Fungus Beetle or a Darkling Beetle.


On the side of the trail was a few Singapore Rhododendron (Melastome malabathricum) plants and on them were a few sleeping Leaf Beetles (Argopus brevis).


On a tree near to the Singapore Rhododendron was a first-time-encountered Checkered Beetle resting on the side of a tree. It has been a while I last encountered any Checkered Beetle and this encounter was a wonderful surprise.


While I was photographing the Checkered Beetle, I noticed a Fungus Beetle hiding under a vine. This is a first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle and it looked very much like the Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus Fungus Beetle except for the spot at the back of its elytra.


Just before I reached the "snow tree", this beetle was found on a lichen on a tree. Not too sure what beetle this is, but it looked a bit like a Long Horned Beetle.


I finally reached the "snow tree" and the condition of the tree has deteriorated a fair bit. On the tree were several fungus mushroom and on one of the fungus mushrooms were several of this Fungus Beetles.


Near the top of the tree was a almost eaten fungus mushroom and on it were a number of Sap Beetles. They started to scatter when my lights was shining on it. This was the only shot of the beetles before they disappeared from the fungus mushroom.


Here is a close-up of one of the Sap Beetles.


At the base of the "snow tree" was several of this 5 mm Fungus Beetle. This particular specimen looked a little odd with its exceptionally short antennae.


At the lower part of the "snow tree" was this lone Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus).


Hidden at the back of the "snow tree" was a small 4 mm Fungus Weevil.


Next to the Fungus Weevil was another Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis).


Moving aimlessly on the "snow tree" was this Flat Bark Beetle (Catogenus rufus).


Resting by the side was this metallic black Ground Beetle.


Near to the Ground Beetle was this Eumorphus assamensis Fungus Beetle, which seemed to be in a hurry to get out of my light.


There were several pairs of this Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta) on the tree.


Resting high up the "snow tree" was this female Fungus Weevil (Anthribus wallacei). You can tell that it is a female beetle from the length of its antennae - the male beetle has much longer antennae.


Time passes by quickly and I didn't noticed that it was pretty late in the night and hence I made a u-turn and picked up my paces towards the start of the trail. As I walk past a lichen laden tree, I saw what I thought is a beetle but it turned out to be a beetle pupae.


As I walked briskly towards the entrance, a brown color Ground Beetle was found feeding by the side of a tree.


The last beetle for the trip was a 5 mm Leaf Beetle that was resting on leaf.


The trip was a fruitful one with a good number of beetles found, especially the few interesting first-time-encountered beetles. Venus Drive is still my top place to look for beetles.

Sunday, 28 December 2014

Morning Walk At Venus Drive (27 Dec 2014)

It rained day and night a day before and so I decided to go to Venus Drive early in the morning for my macro-photography session. The sky was cloudy and looked like it may rain again. The vegetation at the place were drenched to the bone and the ground was wet and muddy. Nevertheless, I decided to proceed with the walk.

The highlight of the trip was the encounter with this lovely and rare Banded Flower Mantis (Theopropus elegans). This is the first time that I ever seen such lovely mantis in Singapore. Majority of the mantis that I came across were either brown, green or mottled-brown, so much duller as compared to this particular specimen.


The first beetle for the trip was the familiar Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea) found under an elephant ear plant.


On the same leaf were several of this brightly colored Ladybird Beetle (Chilocorus circumdatus).


Moving to a grassy patch where I would usually find Leaf Beetles, I am glad to be able to find two different types of Leaf Beetle, namely Lema rufotestacea and Lema diversa.




Near to the grassy patch is an area of low trees, and on a leaf of a low tree was this tiny 2 mm Ladybird Beetle (Cryptogonus orbiculus).


On a nearby low tree was this tiny 2 mm first-time-encountered Ladybird Beetle. This specimen is unique as it is completely black.


There was a small tree trunk across the path and I was surprised to find a lone Fungus Beetle on the log.


After a good 10 minutes of walking without seeing any beetle, this mating pair of Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis) was a welcomed sight.


Coming to a wood pile, I was glad to be able to find a number of this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis). This particular specimen was found a leave nearby to the wood pile.


Under one of the log in the wood pile was another Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula).


Interestingly, this pair of mating Darkling Beetle was the only pair of this type of beetle encountered during this trip.


On a small fern next to the wood pile was a 4mm Leaf Beetle. This specimen has lost one of its antennae.


Recently the number of wood piles have increased in Venus Drive and this created a wonderful habitat for beetles and other critters. With the wood piles come fungus mushrooms and with them, come the different types of Fungus Beetles. Here are some of the Fungus Beetles that I found on these wood piles and their surrounding vegetation.






Among the different Fungus Beetles encountered during the trip, there was a first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle which is entirely black without any markings.


Resting on a leave next to a wood pile was this orange-brown Fungus Beetle.


Another small 4 mm Fungus Beetle was also resting at the edge of leaf nearby.


I finally reached the spot where the long antennae Fungus Weevil was first found. I am glad to still be able to find this long antennae Fungus Weevil moving actively on one of the tree branches.


Flying around on the tree trunk was another Fungus Beetle. This is a large specimen at about 20 mm.


On the side of the tree trunk was another Fungus Weevil, but much smaller at 5 mm in size.


The sky started to drizzle and so I picked up my paces a little. Just as I passed by some low bushes, I saw a flash of white that flew under a leaf. I guessed that it is a particular Leaf Beetle and true enough it was the Leaf Beetle that I was expecting. I have yet to be able to identify the name of this lovely beetle.


Another highlight of the trip was this first-time-encountered Dung Beetle. It was resting on a leaf at the top part of a low tree. I was only able to get this shot of the beetle due to the bad angle and it flew off after the shot.


The trail led to a open area with a large patch of low bushes and lalang grass (Imperata cylindrica). I was happy to be able to find this Spiny Leaf Beetle (Dicladispa armigera) on one blade of the lalang grass.


As I rushed through the trail, I was stopped by the sight of a red dot on a green leaf. The red dot turned out to be a Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus pardalis). I always like to photograph this beetle due to its brilliant red coloration.


Moving further down the trail, I was surprised to find this  Fungus Beetle resting motionlessly on a leaf. This was the beetle that I came across many months back but I was not able to have a good photograph of it then.


Coming to the base of very a large tree, I found several of this bright orange beetles.


Near to the orange beetle was a tiny 2 mm Bark Beetle.


Further down the trail was a Darkling Beetle (Platydema sp.).


On a tree trunk near to the exit was several of this tiny 2 mm beetle.


The last beetle for the trip was my favorite white Ladybird beetle.


Venus Drive never fail to surprise me with more first-time-encountered beetles and also others interesting critters, even after a heavy rain storm. Hopefully with the ending of the monsoon season, I will be able to find more interesting beetles at the different part of Singapore.