Quick Walk At Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (29 Jun 2015)

I happened to be free and decided to go to the area surrounding the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for a night macro photography session. As the park was closed for restoration, the only option was to skirt around the park. My best friend Cameron and her daughter Samantha were keen to join me on the trip and so I invited them along.

Just as a means to "entertain" Cameron and Samantha, I intentionally brought along an Ultra-Violet flashlight to show them the effects of UV light on critters such as scorpion. This turned out to be pretty fun for the trip.

The first beetle was a Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) resting on a fish-tail palm leaf.

As we have not too much time for the walk because of a late start, the pace of moving was much faster than usual. Nevertheless, I managed to spot this brown colored Leaf Beetle resting on a branch.

Near to the Leaf Beetle was a Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) having a feast with a new leaf.

Like at Venus Drive, there were a number of fallen trees along the path. On one of the fallen trees that lined the side of the path was a small 3 mm beetle which looked like a Darkling Beetle.

Moving further, I was surprised to find this Chafer Beetle (Maladera orientalis) resting on a palm leaf. This is the first time that I come across a Chafer Beetle on a palm leaf.

I was a little distracted as there was a hidden agenda - to look out for durian trees and hopefully find some for the night. Although distracted, I still managed to find this small 3 mm Darkling Beetle on a small tree.

While I was photographing the Darkling Beetle, Samantha called out to me that she found a beetle. I was glad that she spotted this as this is one of my favorite beetles.

As we passed by a spot where I usually find the Lema quadripunctata Leaf Beetle, I started looking for them. Instead finding the Lema quadripunctata Leaf Beetle, I found this lone Leaf Beetle that looked very much like the Lema quadripunctata Leaf Beetle but without the spots.

On a fallen log near to the Leaf Beetle was a Darkling Beetle resting on it.

On the same tree log was this 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

Just about then, we started to smell the distinct fragrance of the durian fruit. When one smell the fragrance of durian, it is very likely that there are fallen durians around the area. While searching for the durians, I came across an old durian husk that have critters crawling on it. As I took a closer look at it, I was surprised to find a Ground Beetle (Pentagonica flavipes) on it.

On the same durian husk was this lovely first-time-encountered Rove Beetle.

Next to the Rove Beetle was another smaller beetle.

Just then the focus of the trip was on finding durians on the ground as durians will automatically drop from the tree when they are ripe. At the end of the search around the spot, we managed to find 7 durians. With the durians in hands, I was not able to take any more photographs and thus ended the short but fruitful trip.

The trip was rather short but I am glad to still be able to find the first-time-encountered Rove Beetle. This was an unexpected trip and it turned out to be fun and rewarding.

Night Walk At Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (06 Feb 2015)

It's been more than a month since I visited the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, so I thought it would be good to go for a walk there. The walk was limited to the fringe of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve as the place was closed for restoration since last year. Although it rained heavily in the morning, the place still looked very dry and "lifeless". The dry phase of the North-East Monsoon may have taken its toll on the place as the number of critters seemed to have dropped significantly.

Interestingly, there were many Giant Forest Ant (Camponotus gigas) encountered, and for this trip I saw the biggest one so far on my trips - a good 40 mm Giant Forest Ant was seen up on a tree trunk. Here's a smaller one (~25 mm)on a leaf nearby .

The first beetle of the trip was a lovely Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus nobilis nobilis) resting on a leaf of a wild ginger plant. Its been a while that I last encounter this particular type of Fungus Beetle.

The place looked rather "lifeless" as not many insects were found, mostly grasshoppers and small moths. It was only walking for about 10 minutes before I found this small 5 mm Darkling Beetle on a dried up log.

How I usually find beetles during my night walks was to check the trunk of trees. Usually I would find Darkling Beetles, Fungus Weevil Beetles and the occasional Click Beetles. For this trip, I encountered many of this tiny 2 mm beetle, not sure if it is a Darkling Beetle or Fungus Beetle.

As I journeyed on, it seemed like the trip will not be a fruitful one. After walking for a while, I finally found this small 4 mm Leaf Beetle which kept moving around the plant, making it a challenge photographing it.

I finally came to a long stretch of low plants that I would usually find Leaf Beetles. True enough I found a Leaf Beetle on a badly eaten leaf, albeit it was the only Leaf Beetle found at the stretch of low plants.

Moving further down, a common Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) was found at the tip of a low plant.

There were several fallen trees along the side of the path but majority of them were dry and lifeless, well at least I didn't see any movements or found any beetles or other critters on them. I was so glad to be able to find this  10 mm Darkling Beetle on one of the fallen tree, even though this type of Darkling Beetle is commonly found on fallen logs.

It was at the mid point of my walk that I came across this lone Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus). This is the only yellow spotted Fungus Beetle that I came across for this trip.

Coming to a small patch of ginger plant, I was glad that the resident Leaf Beetle (Lema quadripunctata) were still there, despite the bad condition of the ginger plants.

Near to the ginger patch was a fallen tree that has a surprisingly lush mushroom bloom, and on it was a Pleasing Fungus Beetle. Notice the Pleasing Fungus Beetle at the lower left of the photograph.

On a near by tree was a small 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

After walking for a while without finding any beetles, this different Pleasing Fungus Beetle was a welcomed sight.

I am almost at the end of the path when this small 3 mm Ground Beetle was found on a chewed up tree log.

Just as I was lamenting that there are so few beetles found, a Long Horned Beetle (Aeolesthes holosericeus) was found resting on a leaf.

It was just about 50 meters before I reached the end, I was surprised to find a Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) resting on a leaf.

It was only meters to the end where I found a fallen log with a number of whitish fungus mushrooms were growing. On one of the mushrooms was this tiny 2 mm first-time-encountered Rove Beetle.

Near to the Rove Beetle was a pair of Fungus Beetle (Triplax rufipes).

The types of beetle found on this trip was pretty much the same as my previous trip, and with only one first-time-encountered beetle found. The result of the trip was not as bad as I would imagine, especially given that we are in the dry phase of the North-East monsoon, and also I am only just going along the perimeter of the place.

Special Night Walk At Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (27 Sep 2014)

I had the wonderful opportunity to show a film team around the currently closed Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. The team is here filming a documentary on Singapore wild life and is interested in finding some beetles to be filmed for the documentary. Since the team has gotten special permit to film at the place, I seized the opportunity to also do my weekly beetle macro photography. For this particular trip, it was a "test" trip to test the suitability of their filming equipment.

The weather was super dry and hence besides spotting beetles for the team, I was also helping them to spot some of the commonly encountered critters at the place. Here's a shot of the team in action of filming a Spotted House Scorpion (Isometrus maculatus).

While the team was busy testing their equipment and filming, I looked around to see if I can find any beetles. The first beetle was a Ground Beetle (Onypterygia longispinis).

Near to the Ground Beetle was a fallen log and I am pleased to find this lovely Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus nobilis nobilis).

The original plan was to explore the Durian Trail for beetles but owing to the heavy gear the team was carrying, we decided to just explore a short distance from the entrance. As we walk along the path, a dot of yellow-green light (like a LED light) was floating around in the dark. It was a Firefly beetle (Lychnuris fumigata). It took us a while to track it until it landed on a log.

Moving further down the trail, a Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis) was found resting on the trunk of a small tree.

Coming to some low bushes, a commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) was having its dinner on a leaf.

The team has a UV torchlight and we decided to give it a try on the Chafer Beetle to see if it would glow. The conclusion was that this beetle does not glow under UV light. The speckles of light were dust and dirt.

While the team was filming another critter, I was fortunate to find a Forked Fungus Beetle. I am not too sure with its identification but it is most probably Bolitotherus cornutus.

The team was unable to film the beetles that I found as they are far too small for their camera equipment that they brought, so I decided to help them spot other larger critters while I continue to enjoy my photographing of beetles. Here's a Rove Beetle which disappeared into the shade within a short 2-3 seconds of my illuminating lights.

Moving to a tree stump, I was pleasantly surprised to find a first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle resting on a patch of white fungus.

Straying a short distance from the team still doing their filming, I came across this interesting looking beetle. I initially thought that it is the commonly seen Darkling Beetle, until I zoomed in closer to see the red coloration on its legs. I immediately thought that it is the Fungus Beetle (Encymon scintillans scintillans) unt il when I was processing the photographs at home that I realized that this is a first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle.

The main difference from the Encymon scintillans scintillans Fungus Beetle was its antennae and also the jet-black color elytra. The Encymon scintillans scintillans Fungus Beetle has clubbed antennae, whereas this Darkling Beetle has a beadlike antennae. The color of the Encymon scintillans scintillans Fungus Beetle is metallic bronze-ish-black in color whereas the Darkling Beetle is jet-black in color.

A photograph of a Encymon scintillans scintillans Fungus Beetle from a previous trip for comparison.

Near to the Darkling Beetle was a commonly encountered Darkling Beetle.

Time flies and it was time for us to leave the place. Just when we are about to reach the exit, a first-time-encountered Darkling Beetle was hiding at the base of a tree vine. This Darkling Beetle looked similar to the commonly encountered Darkling Beetle exept for its purplish-black coloration.

Although we didn't travel very far for this particular trip, I am glad to still find a few first-time-encountered beetle. Hopefully the next trip with the team would be even more fruitful.

Late Afternoon Walk At Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (10 May 2014)

I happened to be around the Bukit Timah area in the late afternoon and I decided to drop by the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. It has been a while since I last visited the place as the crowd on Saturday morning at the place was really bad.

I decided to take the cyclist trail as it was late in the afternoon and the cyclist traffic would be sparse. I would not recommend taking this trail in the morning as it is rather dangerous since there many cyclists that use this trail. As expected the number of cyclists that used this trail at this time was about 7 in total over a 2.5 hours period. The first beetle that I found was this Leaf Beetle (Gonophora pulchella). I may have stumble upon a colony of this Leaf Beetle as I counted about 10 of them on a ginger plant.

On a plant nearby was this lovely Leaf Beetle.

Moving further into the trail, I found this Leaf Beetle (Colasposoma auripenne).

While I was photographing the Leaf Beetle, a Ladybird Beetle (Epilachna admirabilis) flew into a bush nearby.

Moving deeper into the cyclists trail, a metallic blue colored Leaf Beetle was found resting on a leaf under a shade.

Near to the Leaf Beetle was another Leaf Beetle. It looked like the Colasposoma auripenne Leaf Beetle but a miniature version at about 2 mm in size. This is a first-time-encountered beetle.

On a ginger plant was a first-time-encountered Weevil Beetle. This particular Weevil Beetle has a white dot on its back.

Moving to a patch of wild pepper plants, I found a number of Leaf Beetles resting under the shade of a tree. One of the Leaf Beetles was this Lema rufotestacea.

On a leaf nearby was this Lema diversa Leaf Beetle.

On a ginger plant near to the wild pepper plants was a surprised find of this colorful Leaf Beetle (Lema quadripunctata). It has been a while I last came across this lovely orange colored Leaf Beetle.

Moving further down the path, I found another Leaf Beetle hiding in the shade of a large ginger leaf.

It was almost time for me to turn back and so I decided to travel on an another path that will lead back to the car park area. On the way I found this Leaf Beetle with bluish color legs resting on a badly damaged leaf.

Moving on, I found this pair of Fungus Beetle on a fallen log.

The return path was not as fruitful as the path that I came from and there was not too many beetles that I found along the way. Looking under a leaf I found this hairy beetle  resting from the hot afternoon sun.

Coming to a fallen tree, I found this tiny 4 mm Fungus Weevil.

The last beetle was a Fungus Beetle that I found under a log near to the "exit" of the trail. I am glad to have found this beetle as it was years that I last encountered this beetle.

This was a relatively short trip of about 2 hours but it was fruitful given that it was a hot afternoon. It was great to be back at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and to find so many different types of Leaf Beetles.