Morning Walk At Durian Loop (21 Sep 2013)

The weather was perfect for a walk at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR), so I decided to go to the Durian Loop trail at the reserve.

I have been wondering why the trail was called Durian Loop, and I got the answer today. There were many of the small durians found on the ground through out the trail. This could possibly an indication that there was strong wind the night before or the durian trees are not doing very well since durians only drop when they are ripe, and the durians that I come across are definitely far from being ripe.

The first beetle that greeted me was this Net Winged Beetle. Interestingly I am still not able to find the name of this Net Winged Beetle on the internet or in books, even though it is a very commonly encountered beetle.

Resting peacefully on a slightly damp leaf was this lovely Lizard Beetle (Languria mozardi).

Another commonly encountered tiny beetle (~3 mm) sipping on the moisture of the morning dew.

On a tree trunk was this tiny Fungus Beetle (~2 mm) which looked black from the naked eyes.

Passing a large patch of Air Potato plants, I found this colorful Leaf Beetle resting on a Air Potato leaf. I always like the coloration of this beetle.

On a nearby shaded area was this metallic blue Leaf Beetle.

The surprise find for the day was this bright orange Leaf Beetle (Lema quadripunctata) found on some wild ginger leaf.

Looking out of place on a sandy ground was this Fungus Beetle, hiding in a hole with an exposed root.

Further down the trail was this black and yellow Leaf Beetle, staying very still while I photographed it.

On the trail was a large fallen tree trunk where a few of this Fungus Beetle were found.

Resting on some low plants was this interesting looking Leaf Beetle. It is the same coloration as the earlier Leaf Beetle but its appendages were very interesting looking. It looked injured though.

The highlight of the trip was the encounter with this interesting Fungus Beetle. In fact, I was fortunate enough to find two of this beetle.

Moving on, I found a lovely Ladybird Beetle hiding under a leaf.

Near to the Ladybird Beetle was a beetle larvae, most likely to be that of the Ladybird Beetle.

On a recently fallen tree was a Tiger Beetle, busily running up and down the length of the tree log.

On the same log was some tiny (~3 mm) Fungus Weevils. Their coloration matched so well with the log that you would not noticed them until they started to move. This Fungus Weevil is a first time encountered beetle. I particularly like the reddish-brown color at the "neck" of the beetle.

A few centimeters away was another unidentified Fungus Weevil.  This is about the same size as the other Fungus Weevil.

On a sawed side of another fallen tree was a tiny (~2 mm) Fungus Beetle, happily munching away at the tiny fungus that are growing on the log.

Just beside the tree log was this beautiful Net Winged Beetle (Dictyoptera aurora). The red color is so striking, especially when it is on a light green leaf such as this. This one is particularly small at about 8mm. Most of the usual Dictyoptera aurora Net Winged Beetle are much larger (~15 mm).

When it was almost near the end of my trip, I came across this interesting looking beetle. I thought that it is a Chafer Beetle when I was there, but realized that I may be wrong after looking closer to its legs. Its legs looked very much like that of a Dung Beetle. I think it is possibly belongs to the Dung Beetle family.

With this "discovery", I went back to my photograph archive and noticed that I may have wrongly identify another beetle that I thought was a Chafer Beetle.

Anyway, I moved on to another recently sawed tree trunk and found this Checkered Beetle resting motionless on it, despite all the camera flashes.

Just before I exited the trail, I found this common Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) flying around the path, taking flight when there are any moment.

This trip was very fruitful with a total of 21 different types of beetle encountered, with 3 first time encountered beetles. I am glad that besides the beetle encounters, I am also able to get some workout from the walk.

Morning Walk At Venus Drive (30 Mar 2013)

It was a bright and sunny morning so I decided to go to Venus Drive for a walk. Instead of starting from the usual starting point, I decided to start from my usual end point. To my dismay the place was pretty wet, seemed to have rained a short while ago. Hoping for the best that the early rain would not washout the trip.



The first beetle that came to greet me was this small (4mm) metallic blue Leaf Beetle (Lema cyanella). It was a good start as it allowed me to "warm up" my phototaking.



Not too far from the Leaf Beetle was another Leaf Beetle (Lema rufotestacea). Unlike the first Leaf Beetle, this one was a little more active and was moving around. Thankfully it was not too disturbed by the camera flashes and did not fly away.



Moving on, I came across this tiny beetle (<2 mm). This beetle seemed to be aplenty after rain. Indeed a number of them were seen on leaves.



Walking slowly, I saw a flash of red and black flying insect and it landed under a leaf. Looking from afar, I noticed that it is a beetle. It looked very much like a Net-winged Beetle but upon closer examination, it could be a Firefly instead. This is the same type of beetle that I saw during my Eco Green Park trip. This beetle was very alert and does not allow me to go near it, so I ended up taking its photograph at a distance of almost 2 metres away.



To my surprise, I came across a few of this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus dilatatus turritus). Surprised because Fungus Beetles are usually nocturnal and are seldom seen in the day. This reminded me of the Fungus Beetle Paradise, not too far from where I am.



Near to the Fungus Beetle was another Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis subguttatus). Another 'late sleeper'.



Walking into the area where the tree canopy is much thicker, a lovely Leaf Beetle was seen resting on a leaf.



Just as I was done photographing the Leaf Beetle, at the corner of my eyes I saw something flew to a tree trunk nearby. Using the camera's tele-zoom, I was thrilled to find this pinkish Fungus Weevil. This is the same kind of beetle that I encountered during my night walk previously. Just like the night trip, the beetle was super alert and flew away into the bushes after only three shots of it. Thankfully, the photograph turned out not too bad even though I am using the tele-zoom.



Further down the track, at the underside of a palm leave was this lovely Leaf Beetle (3mm). This seems to be the usual hangout for this beetle as my last encounter was also finding it underside of a palm leaf.



On a small plant nearby was this tiny beetle (<2 mm). It looked like the same type of beetle that I came across frequently in the night on tree bark. Could this be where they hide during the day?



After walking not too long, I came across another hairy little beetle (3 mm). This looked very much like the third beetle that I came across on this trip, but the difference is that it is entirely black.



While making way for some joggers, I accidentally spotted this lovely Net-wing Beetle. It was pretty calm and allowed me to take quite a number of macro shots. This was so different from my previous encounters with them.



I was almost reaching the U-turn point for the trip, I saw this little Leaf Beetle (2 mm) underneath a leaf. This is the first time I came across this beetle. It has a sweet yellowish body. It remained very still even after a serious of camera flashes at it. How I wish all the beetles that I photograph all remain so still.



Another surprised encounter, a pretty yellow Leaf Beetle. I frequently come across this beetle at the BTNR but this is the first time I come across it at Venus Drive trail.



Not too far down from the yellow Leaf Beetle was this red and black Ladybird like beetle.



The highlight of the trip would be spotting this Long Horned Beetle (Xylotrechus javanicus) just before reaching the end of the trail.



A stone's throw from the Long Horned Beetle was this Fungus Beetle resting in the shade of a leaf.

Basking in the sun was this bronze color beetle with tint of blue at the legs and antennae. I presumed that it is a Leaf Beetle.

The last beetle that I came across was this Lizard Beetle (Languria mozardi).


The trip was fruitful, especially so because of the encounter with the Xylotrechus javanicus.

A Quick Walk At Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (08 Mar 2013)

I was around Bukit Timah area and happened to have about 1.5 hours of in-between time, so I decided to drop by the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for a quick walk to see if I can catch some photography actions.

As usual the carpark at the Visitor Centre was jam-packed with cars but thankfully I managed to get a nice lot for the quick walk. The weather was nice and dry and I went straight for my usual trail. This is not a very safe trail as it is a mountain bike trail and the trail is very busy with bikers on a Saturday morning. Nevertheless it is a productive trail as it is less disturbed by hikers on foot.

The first beetle that appeared was this hairy little beetle (~2 mm). It was busily moving around a piece of leaf. Not easy to photograph it especially with a light breeze blowing.

I was surprised to see a lone fungus beetle moving around on a dead log. Guess it might have stayed up late as fungus beetles usually come out in the night.

Moving down the trail, I came across this lovely Lizard Beetle (Languria mozardi) which tolerated all the camera flashes for a good 5 minutes or so.

Walking along the main path, I came across what looked like a small path and I decided to take short detour to check it out. Just a moment into the path, I saw this beautiful Net-winged Beetle (Dictyoptera aurora). This particular beetle was so sensitive that it wouldn't let me get within 1.5 meters and it would fly off. After several attempts and following it around, I gave up the idea of wanting to get closer to get a good macro shot and use the tele-zoom instead.

Still on the detour path, I came across this beautiful Leaf Beetle which is yellowish-gold in color. It remained pretty still and only to decide to move off after a few flashes.

Going back to the main path, I came across a dead log with some fresh large fungus growing on it. This could have been the results of the heavy rain a day before. On the fungus was this 2 mm beetle. It looked like a Fungus Beetle.

It was not until I was looking through the photographs at home that I noticed that the beetle was actually laying a large clutch of white color eggs. How interesting.

Moving at a much faster pace due to the limited time, I chanced upon this lovely metallic blue Leaf Beetle. At one glance it looked like the Altica cyanea but as I looked closer, it is slightly different in terms of the shape of the elytra and color of the antenna.

Just before I reached the U-turn point, I came across this 5 mm Darkling Beetle, resting on a broken blade of grass.

While I was photographing the Darkling Beetle, this Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) decided that it want its photograph taken as it flew right in front of me. I have not been able to get a very good photograph of this beetle as it is also very sensitive to movement and would fly away when it detects movements. True enough it flew off after only a handful of shots.

A stone throw away, I found this Leaf Beetle resting in the shade.

The highlight of this short trip was this strange looking Spiny Leaf Beetle. Looking through the view finder, I discovered that this beetle is different from the Spiny Leaf Beetle (Dicladispa armigera) I came across previously, even though the coloration is the same. Like most of the other beetles, after a few shots it decided that it had enough of my camera flashes and flew off in a rather clumsy manner. Interesting beetle!

My pace of walking to go back to the Visitor Centre was quick due to the extra time taken to photograph the interesting Spiny Leaf Beetle. Walking quickly did not make me miss the opportunity to photograph this little colorful and lovely beetle.

Although this trip I was a little rushed for time, I am happy that I still managed to come across some beautiful beetles and get some nice photographs of them.