A Morning Walk At Upper Seletar Reservior (02 Feb 2013)

After a dismal testing of the LED lights the night before, I decided to take a walk at the Upper Seletar Reservior in the morning to test out the LED lights again.



Just a stone's throw from the carpark was a plant that was full of this type of beetle. They look very much like a Leaf Beetle.


Moving further, there was a tree with a fungus beetle larvae. No adult fungus beetle was in sight.


Walking along a particular stretch of tall hedges, there were a number of the Hoplasoma unicolor flying around. The Hoplasoma unicolor seem to be in great abundance here.


Walking along a shaded trail, a tiny beetle caught my attention. It looked like a Net-winged Beetle but was completely black as compared to the bright red coloration of the other Net-winged Beetle found in Singapore.

Along the way was this little beetle at about 2mm in size. Looked like a leaf beetle.


This came as a pleasant surprise as I was not expecting to see this Tiger Beetle. In fact a few of them were busy running around the dead log.


Found a really tiny beetle, about 2mm. It was not an easy beetle to photograph, especially given the strong wind that was blowing at that time. Nevertheless, I managed to get a few decent shots of it.


Coming to a spot where there is a sand pit of sort, there were a few of this type of tiger beetle Cicndela aurulenta.

I moved into a small trail  and was hoping that there will be some interesting beetles. Not much actions except for this beetle. A ladybird?

Further down the trail, I came across this  really small weevil beetle. It is less than 2mm in size. Looking back, it was pretty amazing how I managed to spot it in the first place.

Another tiny beetle (3mm)...

This beetle was rather bold as it allowed me to photograph it for a while.

Just before I leave for home, this Net-Winged beetle came into my view finder.

This morning walk was pretty good with a good selection of beetles. Looking forward to the next walk.

A Walk Around The Neighbourhood (01 Feb 2013)

Just received my mail order of a LED ring light for my camera, so itching to go take some photographs with it. As the night falls, off I go to the wilder part of the neighbourhood to catch some night actions.

Sadly the number of critters that I came across is not as high as my excitement, but nevertheless I managed to get some photographs. I have been using my camera build in flash and using the LED ring light which also doubled as a flash, was a challenge. All my camera settings were not right which ended up with poorly taken photographs.

Here's what I encountered during this trip of testing the LED light. Do pardon the quality of the photographs.

First beetle that appeared was this Apogonia expeditionis,  which became extremely difficult to photograph when the wind was blowing non-stop at the location.

Moving on to the tree that I last saw many beetles and true enough there a couple of the Anomala variegata, that were having a wonderful feast with the leaves.

Then came the Adoretus compressus which hang gingerly unto the leaf, with the strong wind blowing.

More of the Apogonia expeditionis and the photography with the new LED lights proved to be a bigger challenge than expected. I was not able to get a good setting with my camera to match the light.

A beetle was on a piece of dead log and it became my test subject for the LED light. Soon the lights went off, it disappeared without a trace. Guessed it had enough of the flashing.

Just when I was about to leave the log that I noticed something that looked like a beetle. Looking closer confirmed it. It was a fungus weevil that camouflaged so well with the log.

In a nearby tree was this little beetle (2mm). This is one of the better shots that I managed to get using the new LED light, which honestly was not good at all. Notice the reflection of the LED ring light?

There was a fallen tree and on it I found this fungus weevil which looked different from the earlier one, given the much long antennae.

The night seemed to be a Apogonia destructor night where I found dozens of them feasting on the leaves. You can easily see why it is so named.

The highlight of the night walk was this 2cm long horned beetle, which stood pretty still for me to take a number of shots with it. Sadly the photographs using the LED light did not turn out so well.

More Apogonia destructor.

Just before the going back, I came a cross this little beetle which became very restless when my light was shining on it.

The last beetle for the trip was another Apogonia expeditionis which together with another dozen of them, feasting on a almost 'botak' plant.

The trip was not as fantastic as I was expecting but it did give me a feel of how to use the LED light. More adjustments needed.

Night Walk At Riffle Range Trail (25 Jan 2013)

The journey to the Riffle Range Trail took shorter than expected and hence managed to catch the last bit of the sunlight.

The first beetle that greeted me was this tiger beetle (Therates dimidiatus).  Not too good shot of it due to tele-zooming in the dim lighting under the tree canopy.

Found this fungus beetle under some leaf litters.  It was not too active and I am not sure if it was still sleeping.

Just as the sky was getting darker, a speck of red appeared in the bushes. It was a C(Taphes brevicollis). It was so easily spooked that I was only able to take photographs from a distance.

Moving along I came across a tree stump with a large patch of white fungus which looked very much like snow. On top of the white fungus were several fungus beetles and some were really busy.

Near to the tree stump was a tree with many of this 2mm size beetles.

Further down the dark path was this little chafer (Apogonia expeditionis).

Moving further down the trail, there was a dead tree trunk where I found this fungus weevil. The interesting thing about this weevil is the red coloration on the side of its elytra.

On the same tree trunk was this tiny little bettle.

Another fungus beetle along the trail.

Here's a larvae of the fungus beetle with interesting coloration.

This was the highlight of the trip. A small beetle with an interesting pattern. This was found on a tree with several other beetles as follow.

Moving further, I found this cute little beetle. It is no bigger than 2mm.

Along a path, I came across this lovely leaf beetle with a greenish coloration. Saw this beetle in some blog previously, so this was a pleasant encounter.

Moving deeper into the trail, I found this fungus beetle (Eumorphus dilatatus turritus) hidding under a big bracket fungus.

The next beetle that I encountered was really an exciting one. I have been wanting to photograph this long horned beetle (Bartocera rubus) for a while and I finally got to do it on this trip.

Hidding in a crevice of a dead tree was this fungus beetle. Looks like it belongs to the Pleasing Fungus Beetle family (Erotylidae). This beetle does not have any of the nice marking found on the elytra of other Pleasing Fungus Beetles, but it is nevertheless an interesting beetle to be found on the trail.

Another tiny beetle found on the tree trunk.

Not too far from the place that I found the long horned beetle, was this slightly smaller long horn beetle (Acalolepta sp.) It was pretty alert when I found it and after a few flash shots, it flew away.

 Moving along, this little beetle were found on the tree trunks nearby.

Pressing on, I came across a tree and it was crawling with tiny ground beetles. There were altogether two different types of makings. The below beetle is called Pericalus figuratus.

The next beetle was Pericalus tetrasitigma. Loving colors don't you think?

 Another fungus beetle along the trail.

More fungus beetle?

 At almost the end of my walk, I came across this small Weevil Beetle that stayed pretty motionless at the base of a tree trunk.

At the very end of the trip came this long horned beetle (Acalolepta sp.).

Yes, although it was a tiring trip (as I almost got lost when trying to come out of the trail) it was a fruitful trip indeed. :)