Night Walk At Pasir Ris Park (20 Jul 2018)

I was away for holiday in Genting Highlands last week. Besides the usual sight-seeing and shopping, I am glad that I was able to find some interesting beetles. Here are some of the photographs of the beetles that I found there.

The biggest beetle I found was a minor male Chalcosoma caucasus, at about 50 mm in size. The reason why it is called minor male is because it lacks the usual pronounced horns that male beetles of its kind have. Sadly, I didn't come across any normal male Chalcosoma caucasus.

It must be the season for Xylotrupes gideon as I easily came across a few tens of them, albeit that they were mostly females. I only came across 3 male Xylotrupes gideon during the trip.

Here's a photograph of a female Xylotrupes gideon. I am surprised to come across so many of them during the trip. They were usually found on their backs in the car parks, but they can also be found in bushes near to bright lights.

I am glad to also found several Stag Beetles on this trip.

Motivated by what I saw in Genting Highlands, I called up HW and arranged for a night macro session at the Pasir Ris Park. The weather has been very dry over the week and hence we were mentally prepared not to find many critters during this trip. Here's an interesting looking moth that looks like a half eaten leaf.

The first beetle for the trip was a commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis).

Not too far from the Apogonia expeditionis Chafer Beetle was another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle.

It was after some walking before finding this black and brown Chafer Beetle.

Coming to a small tree, there were several of this 2 mm Darkling Beetles moving around the tree trunk.

On the same tree were a number of pupae, some were empty while others were not. Notice also that there is a beetle larva next to an empty pupa.

Near to the Darkling Beetle was an old vine where this first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle was found, with its head buried into the wood.

More Chafer Beetles (Aprosterna pallide) encountered as we proceeded towards the spot where several Tiger Beetles colonies were found during the last trip there.

Upon reaching the Tiger Beetle spot, we were greeted by scores of Tiger Beetles (Cicindela aurulenta) resting in groups among the low bushes.

Moving further, I was glad to find a 4 mm Leaf Beetle resting on a blade of Elephant Grass (Pennisetum purpureum).

Sharing the same habitat with the Leaf Beetle was this 3 mm Sweet Potato Weevil (Cylas formicarius) resting on another blade of Elephant Grass.

The last beetle for the trip was a pair of another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus).

In all honesty, this trip to Pasir Ris Park was an anti-climax when compared to my trip to Genting Highlands. Nevertheless this was expected given the hot and dry weather that we are experiencing in Singapore.

Night Walk At Pasir Ris Park (18 Aug 2017)

The weather was not very good as it rained heavily in the afternoon. Nevertheless, I decided to carry on with my weekly macro-photography session at the Pasir Ris Park as I was eager to try out my new flash diffuser.

The new diffuser is 25% smaller than my previous diffuser. The reason for the change is because of my new smaller and lighter Sony A6000 camera was put out of balance by the bigger diffuser, which was suited for the larger and heavier Sony SLT-A58 camera.

My friend Reynard decided to join me for this trip to Pasir Ris Park because his place of study is near to where I was going. Here's a picture of a small 20 mm Praying Mantis found at the place.

Not surprisingly, the first beetle for the trip was a commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) on a thin vine.

Near to the Chafer Beetle was a small 4 mm Leaf Beetle found at a patch of low bushes,

After a bit of walking before this Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) was found munching on a leaf.

Coming to the spot where several colonies of Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) I found previously, I was disappointed to find only this single specimen. Not sure what happened to the colonies.

The highlight of the trip was a 30 mm Click Beetle, found by Reynard.

On a leaf of a Clidemia hirta plant was this Sweet Potato Weevil (Cylas formicarlus) with only 4.5 legs.

Near to the Sweet Potato Weevil was another Click Beetle (Pectocera babai) with  its fan-like antennae closed up.

More walking before finding several of this 2 mm Darkling Beetles on a small tree.

On the same tree was this well-camouflaged Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassiornis).

On another tree was a tragedy in action where a Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) was attacked by a group of Weaver Ants (Oecophylla smaragdina).  This was a little odd as Chafer Beetles usually do not rest on tree trunks, which these Weaver Ants were found.

A stone's throw away was this large 25 mm Chafer Beetle (Phyllophaga marginalis) munching on a leaf.

Sadly on another tree was this Darkling Beetle being taken alive by another group of Weaver Ants.

The last beetle for the trip was a 3 mm Darkling Beetle hiding in a crevice of a small tree.

The trip was not expected to be fruitful, but I am still happy as I am able to test out my new diffuser which seemed to work well with my new camera.

Night Walk At Pasir Ris Town Park (20 Jan 2017)

It rained in the day but my friend HW and I decided to continue with our plan to go to Pasir Ris Town Park for our macro photography session. Apart from the beetles,

When we reached the place I was glad to find the place slightly damp and not wet as expected. The highlight of the trip was the encounter of this White-spotted Slug Snake (Pareas margaritophorus) which is not supposed to be indigenous to Singapore but accidentally introduced. This is the second time that I came across this snake, with the first one encountered along Mandai Road many years back. This particular specimen looked well fed and it was not surprising given the many slugs that were at the place when we were there.

As expected, the first beetle for the trip was a Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) on a blade of a tall grass.

Near to the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle was another commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis).

Before the trip, we were expecting to find Chafer Beetles for the initial part of the the route and sure enough, we found more Chafer Beetles as we move towards the Pasir Ris Town Park. Here's a photograph of a pair of mating Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea).

Further down the route was this brownish Chafer Beetle which I previously thought to be the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle (but I no longer think it is since the time I encountered a mating pair of this beetle).

Another highlight of the trip was this lovely Ladybird Beetle (Heteroneda reticulata). For a moment when I encountered this specimen, I thought I have finally encounter one of the beetles on my target list to photograph - Harmonia testudinaria Ladybird Beetle, which looked very similar to the Hereoneda reticulata Ladybird beetle at a cursory glance. A simple differentiation between the two would be the markings on the pronotum. Although this is not the Harmonia testudinaria Ladybird Beetle, it was still a wonderful find for the trip.

On a small tree near to the Ladybird Beetle was a 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

There were several Ladybird nymphs encountered on the trip and this is one of them which was less active among those that we have encountered that night.

Next to the Ladybird nymph was a small 3 mm Leaf Beetle which I have not encountered for a long while. Sadly it was in an odd position to get a good shot of it.

Coming to a small patch of Clidemia hirta plants, I was glad to find this Chafer Beetle (Anomala variegata) resting on a leaf.

Unlike places like Venus Drive or Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, the place rarely has any fallen log along the route that we take at Pasir Ris Park and hence finding a fallen log there was a treat. Several of this large 20 mm Darkling Beetle (Eucyrtus anthracinus) was found on the log.

After some walking, we finally reached the spot where we usually find colonies of Golden-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta). We were glad to still be able to find that the colonies were doing well at the place.

All the beetles encountered so far were the usual Chafer Beetle and Darkling Beetle, hence I was thrilled when HW call out to me that he found a Long Horned Beetle. At a glance, the beetle didn't look very interesting until I examined its photographs at home and noticed that there were some markings on its pronotum. Also, this turned out to be a first-time-encountered Long Horned Beetle.

On a small tree nearby was a small 1 mm Fungus Beetle which was in a difficult position to get a good photograph of it.

On another tree nearby was this 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

We were almost at the end of our usual route and on a low ground creeper was this Sweet Potato Weevil (Cylas fornicarius).

Nearby was another Chafer Beetle resting on a low bush.

A surprise find was this Fungus Beetle (Amblyopus vittatus) found on a blade of lalang grass.

The last beetle for the trip was this Click Beetle (Pectocera babai) on a Fish-tail Palm leaf.

The trip was fruitful compared to the recent trip that we had at Venus Drive. I am also glad to be able to find a first-time-encountered Long Horned Beetle on this trip.