Night Walk At Mount Faber Park (23 Apr 2021)

It has been a while that I did any macro photography session, this is mainly due to some problems with my camera recently. Taking advantage of the fine weather, I decided to recce a part of Mount Faber Park that I saw on Google Map. 

Sadly, my camera was still not working properly in that the camera was not able to detect my macro lens. Nevertheless, I decided to continue with the "default" setting of 1/200 and F-- (yes, the aperture was not set according to my selection, probably due to the problem of not able to detect the macro lens). Hopefully, I can do something to resolve the problem.

Enough of my "sorrows", but before I continue I would like to apologize for the quality of the photographs as I was not able to gauge too well the focus due to the mentioned problem.  Here's an ant-mimic spider that I came across during the trip. It looked so much like the commonly encountered Golden Ant (Polyrhachis illaudata).

Darkling Beetle ~ 4 mm

Fungus Beetle (Amblyopus vittatus) ~ 10 mm

Chafer Beetle (Matadera castanea) ~ 8 mm

Long Horned Beetle (Aeolesthes holosericeus) ~ 15 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus) ~ 10 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 10 mm

Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) ~ 8 mm

Tortoiseshell Beetle (Aspidimorpha miliaris) ~ 12 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 2 mm

Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) ~ 15 mm

Although during this trip not many beetles were encountered, I am glad that the location seemed promising and I will surely go back there in the near future.

Recce Trips To Thomson Nature Park (Jan 2020)

The Thomson Nature Park was first opened in Oct 2019 and I didn't have the opportunity to visit the place until this holiday seasons of Christmas and New Year.

The following is a combination of the various recce trips that I made to the Thomson Nature Park. Starting from this first post for 2020, I will only post the photographs of the beetles that I encountered during the trip, with some information on the beetles encountered.

Leaf Beetle ~10 mm

Long Horned Beetle (Pterolophia illicita) ~ 10 mm [First-time-encountered]

Pintail Beetle ~ 5 mm [First-time-encountered]

Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus) ~ 10 mm

Tortoiseshell Beetle (Cassida circumdata) ~ 8 mm

Leaf Beetle ~10 mm

Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis) ~10 mm

Darkling Beetle ~25 mm

Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta) ~10 mm

Darkling Beetle (Promethis valga) ~15 mm

Long Horned Beetle (Xystrocera globosa) ~ 18 mm [First-time-encountered]

Darkling Beetle (Cryphaeus gazelle) ~ 10 mm

Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi) ~10 mm

Beetle larva

Polypore Fungus Beetle ~ 3 mm

Rove Beetle ~3 mm

Darkling Beetle (Byrsaz sp.) ~3 mm

Rove Beetle ~3 mm [First-time-encountered]

Pintail ~10 mm

Rove Beetle ~3 mm [First-time-encountered]

Darkling Beetle ~10 mm [First-time-encountered]

Darkling Beetle ~4 mm

Fungus Beetle (Mycetina cyanipennis) ~3 mm

Fungus Weevil ~3 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 5 mm

Darkling Beetle ~5 mm

Night Walk At Pasir Ris Park (30 Nov 2018)

The weather today was surprisingly better than expected, with only some short showers through the day. HW and I planned to go to Pasir Ris Park for this week's macro photography session and so we proceeded there as planned. As expected, the condition of the place was not ideal with many part of the ground being "soggy" due to the heavy rain during the week.

Here's a photograph of some interesting looking 3 mm flies on a blade of grass.

As expected, the first beetle for the trip was the commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) feasting on some closed leaves. Due to the rain, even this commonly encountered beetle was only seen 3 times during this trip.

The vegetation grew back after all the construction works at the place that we usually visit. To my pleasant surprise, there were many of this 5 mm shiny bronze-color Leaf Beetle.

The highlight of the trip was the encounter of this first-time-encountered 3 mm beetle on a small blade of grass, while I was waiting for HW to reach the place. From its appearance, it looked like a Water Beetle. You might be wondering how can it be that a Water Beetle can be found on land? It is interesting to note that even the Water Beetle can fly and this is how they move from one body of water to another, especially during the dry season where their watery homes dried up frequently. Nevertheless, I may be wrong as this is only the second time that I encountered a Water Beetle on land since I started photographing Singapore's beetles since December 2012.

Further down the path was a spot where there were many Elephant Climber plants (Aniseia nervosus) and on one of the leaves was this lone 10 mm Tortoiseshell Beetle (Laccoptera nepalensis).

It was after a while of walking before we came to a sandy patch of ground where a colony of Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) was found. There are easily a few tens of them resting close to each other.

On a small tree nearby was a 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

The last beetle for the trip was a 2 mm Darkling Beetle. Sadly, no more beetles encountered after this.

This trip was not very fruitful partially due to the wet weather and partially because we decided to go through a different path. Nevertheless, it is still a good trip as I managed to find a first-time-encountered beetle on this trip.

Night Walk At Admiralty Park (31 Aug 2018)

It has been more than 3 years that I last went to Admiralty Park. One of the main reasons for not going there was because of the red ants infestation (Morning Walk At Admiralty Park (21 Mar 2015)).

I happened to be on leave and so decided to go there for a walk since it is not so convenient for me to go there on a working day. Although it rained in the early afternoon, I decided to continue with my plan. Here's an interesting looking caterpillar encountered at the place.

As expected, the vegetation at the place were drenching wet, and so was my hope of finding any beetles for the trip. It was after a long while of walking before I came across this 5 mm Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis) on a small tree. I am quite surprised to find it on a healthy tree as I usually find them on rotten logs or dying trees.

On another tree nearby was this small 3 mm Darkling Beetle.

More walking before finding this lone Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) feasting on a leaf.

The highlight of the trip was the encounter with this lone 12 mm Tortoise-shell Beetle (Aspidimorpha miliaris) hiding under a leaf.

More walking without finding any beetles until coming to a small tree with this small 2 mm Darkling Beetle.

On the same tree was another 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

Moving further, I am happy to find this 4 mm Leaf Beetle on a  Clidemia hirta plant.

On a tree nearby was a 4 mm Darkling Beetle.

I was almost nearing the entrance to the park, when this Chafer Beetle was found on a low bush. At a cursory glance, the beetle looked like the Apogonia expeditionis  Chafer Beetle but upon closer look its body is much broader and flatter than that of the Apogonia expeditionis.

Although there were many fallen logs along the trail, majority of them do not have any critters on them. Coming to a fallen log near the entrance, I was thrilled to find this 20 mm False Click Beetle.

The last beetle for the trip was a pair of commonly encountered Chafer Beetle.

Although the weather was not ideal but I am glad that to still be able to find a number of beetles, especially the Tortoise-shell Beetle. Sadly, the place is still infested with the small red ants despite the place having undergone a massive renovation.