Morning Walk At Windsor Nature Park (01 Feb 2020)

I happened to be up very early and so I decided to go to Windsor Nature Park for a walk. During my walk I came across some interesting looking fungus growing on a rotting log.

Darkling Beetle ~ 2 mm

Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula) ~ 10 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 1 mm

Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus)~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle ~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis) ~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus nobilis nobilis) ~ 4 mm

Fungus Beetle ~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle ~ 1 mm

Fungus Weevil (Habrissus omadioides) ~ 4 mm

Beetle Larva ~ 5 mm

Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Triplatoma gestroi) ~ 15 mm

Checkered Beetle ~ 10 mm

Dung Beetle (Onthophagus leosemontis) ~ 5 mm

Net-winged Beetle ~ 4 mm

Fungus Beetle ~ 10 mm (lighter color spots, likely to be Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus.

Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus westwoodi) ~ 10 mm

Fungus Weevil ~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle ~ 5 mm

Darkling Beetle (unsure) ~ 15 mm

Long-Toed Water Beetle ~ 3 mm

Weevil Beetle (Demimaea bakeri) ~ 3 mm

Leaf Beetle ~ 8 mm

Firefly (unsure) ~ 10 mm

Darkling Beetle (Strongylium tenuipes) ~ 10 mm

Leaf Beetle (Colasposoma auripenne) ~ 5 mm

Tortoiseshell Beetle (Laccoptera nepalensis) ~8 mm

Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephia cyanea)

Late Morning Walk At Chestnut Nature Park (06 Oct 2018)

I happened to be running some errands around Chestnut area in the late morning and so I decided to drop by the Chestnut Nature Park for a short macro photography session. This is the first time that I am there and do not know what to expect.

The first beetle for the trip was what looked like a Net-winged Beetle hiding in the shade. I am not sure if this is a Net-winged Beetle as it lacks the netted patterns on its elytra.

A stone's throw away was another Net-winged Beetle.

Next to the Net-winged Beetle was a first-time-encountered 8 mm Fungus Beetle.

After some walking, I was pleasantly surprised to find this black Net-winged Beetle. Although this is not the first time that I encountered this entirely black Net-winged Beetle, it is the first time that I am able to get a good photograph of it. The netted pattern on this beetle is very obvious and showed why it is called Net-winged Beetle.

Sadly that's all the beetles that I came across during the walk. This was possibly due to the time and also the super hot weather, which has persisted through the entire week. Coming to a part of the Northern Hiking Loop where there were several of this scary looking signs along side the trail. Not sure if they are still valid.

The interesting thing about the Chestnut Nature Park is its clear distinction between the Hikers' trail and Bikers' trail.

Sadly, there were many illiterate bikers that used the hiking trail. When I was there for about an hour or so, I counted about twenty or so bikers riding in the hikers' trail. Beside being inconsiderate, the bikers are also a danger to hikers using the trail. I confronted several of the bikers and all sort of lame reasons were given to justify them using the hikers' trail.

I later called up NPark to bring to their attention about the unlocked gate (which I suspect the bikers were using to get onto the hikers' trail) and was given the reason that the gates are not locked in case of emergencies.  I intentionally brought this up in this post to alert hikers planning to go to the Chestnut Nature Park to look out for errant bikers even though they are on the hikers' trail. Guessed that it is no longer safe to walk in our parks. :(

Here's a shot of some of the bikers that rode on the hikers' trail. Incidentally, I confronted the person in red cycling attire and he told me that he was not riding but pushing his bike.  He continued to push his bicycle and constantly looked behind to see if I am watching. Sigh...

The Chestnut Nature Park looked promising but will have to be extra careful to look out for illiterate errant bikers! Although this trip was a short one, I am glad to still be able to find a first-time-encounter Fungus Weevil and to be able to photograph the black Net-winged Beetle.

Morning Walk At Windsor Nature Park (11 Aug 2018)

It has been quite a while that I did any macro photography in the morning, and so I decided to change this Friday's night macro session to the next morning. In order to have a higher chance of success, I have chosen the Windsor Nature Park.

Here's a photograph of some interesting fungus that I found growing on some rotting wood. Each round "ball" is less than 1 mm in size.

The first beetle for the trip was a 3 mm Spiny Leaf Beetle, found on a blade of grass.

Near to the Spiny Leaf Beetle was a skittish Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) which proved to be a challenge to photograph due to its constant flying about.

Just a stone's throw away was another slightly bigger 5 mm Spiny Leaf Beetle (Dicladispa armigera) resting on a leaf.

Further down the path were several of the Elephant Ear Plant (Alocasia Macrorrhiza) where this lone Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea) was found.

Just before the entrance to the Venus Loop, I was glad to find this 2 mm Leaf Beetle (Lema cyanella) hiding under a leaf.

As I was combing through the low bushes for beetles, this 3 mm Net-winged Beetle caught my eyes with its bright red coloration. Upon closer examination, I was surprised to see that it has a deformed elytra. Just when I was wanting to take more shots, it promptly flew off into the thick bushes.

It was only after a while of walking that I found this lovely Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus pardalis) resting on a low bush. It remained pretty much motionless through all the camera flashes. How I wish all the beetles I found are like this. :)

Finally I came to a fallen log where several different beetles were found. Here's a Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Triplatoma gestroi) munching on the tree bark.

Next to the Pleasing Fungus Beetle was another Fungus Beetle (Episcapha xanthopustulata).

On the other end of the fallen log was this 10 mm Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis).

Near to the Fungus Beetle was a relatively big beetle larva.

While I was photographing the beetle larva, my eyes were attracted to a "flash" of pink and found this pretty pink color Fungus Weevil.

Moving on, I came across a highly rotten tree where several Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraspilotus) were found hiding under a big bracket fungus mushroom.

Just centimeters away from the Eumorphus tetraspilotus Fungus Beetle was this lone Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus politus).

More walking before I encounter this lovely Leaf Beetle (Arcastes biplagiata) under a leaf. This turned out to be a lesson on how to contort my body in order to get a good shot of it.

The last beetle for the trip was a beetle larva, resting on a small tree.

Although the number of beetles encountered was much lower than what I usually get when I visit Windsor Nature Park, I am still glad to be able to find so many beetles on this trip. At the same time, I am happy that I can test out a new set of DIY flash diffuser. This new set of diffusers work better than expected, as can be seen from the photographs above.