Morning Walk At Venus Drive (09 Nov 2013)

The weather was surprisingly dry even though the weather forecasted to be rainy. Making use of the dry but overcast weather, I decided to go to Venus Drive for a walk. I am also taking this trip as as a practice trip to get use to my Tamron 70-300 mm telephoto cum macro lens, and also testing out my DIY flash diffuser.

The first beetle that came into view was this 2mm Fungus Beetle. I took a number of shots to get use the new lens.

Near to the tiny Fungus Beetle was a small (~3 mm) Silken Fungus Beetle (Triplax rufipes). I was rather disappointed with the DIY diffuser as there was still an obvious reflection from the shiny elytra of the beetle.

Moving down the path, I found this lovely Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus pardalis). I always like to photograph this beetle because of its vibrant red color.

Along the side of the path there was a fallen tree. On the fallen tree I found a few Tiger Beetles. Owning to the reason that there was a water obstacle between me and the log, I decided to use the telephoto zoom of my lens to take photographs of this beetle.

As I was moving down the path, a small beetle flew across my path and landed very near to me. Although the telephoto zoom allowed photograph of the insects from a distance away, I still prefer taking close up macro even though there is a high risk that the beetle would fly away without me taking any photograph,

Coming to a tall buttress rooted tree, I found this lovely colored Fungus Beetle. This beetle is about 2 mm in size.

Among some dead plants was a small (~5 mm) Fungus Weevil Beetle. This beetle wtas easily spooked and hence I switched from macro to telephoto zoom mode.

Flying among some low bushes were several Tumbling Leaf Beetle (Glipa malaccana). This beetle was hyper sensitive to motions and flew around restlessly. Fortunately I was able to photograph it while it was taking a rest.

In a patch of low vegetation, a Leaf Beetle was seen flying among the low vegetation.

Moving on I came across a 1 mm beetle hiding under a large Elephant Ear Taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos) leaf. This is a first-time-encountered beetle.

Moving further down the path, a 8 mm Net-winged Beetle was seen resting on a leaf. Pardon the "strange" color as I don't know what happen to this particular photograph in that the color looked washed out. The black on this photograph turned to brown for some unknown reasons. I have redo several of the same photograph but to no avail.

Coming to a dead tree stump, several of this Fungus Beetle was seen on it. This is interesting as these are nocturnal insects.

The highlight of the day was the encounter with this first-time-encountered Chafer Beetle.

Next a brightly colored Net-winged Beetle (Dictyoptera aurora) appeared on some low bushes. The red color of this beetle is so intense!

Almost near the exit, a 5 mm Tumbling Flower Beetle was seen having a great time drinking sky juice.

Next to the Tumbling Flower Beetle was a Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis). This photograph was taken with the 300 mm telephoto lens.

A small (~10 mm) reddish-black colored beetle flew cross my path and landed on a leaf. Upon closer look, it turned out to be a Net-winged Beetle. This is slightly smaller than the Dictyoptera aurora Net-winged Beetle. After looking closer at this photograph I discovered that I may have wrongly identified this beetle as Dictyoptera aurora Net-winged Beetle in my past posting.

The trip was surprisingly successful as I was not expecting to be able to take some nice photograph since I was still getting use to the new Tamron camera lens.

Night Walk At Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West (08 Nov 2013)

It rained heavily in the late afternoon but stopped in the evening. I took the opportunity to revisit the Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West to continue from where I last left off because of the rain (http://beetlesg.blogspot.sg/2013/10/night-walk-at-ang-mo-kio-town-garden.html). At the same time I am also trying out a DIY flash diffuser.

The first beetle was a Chafer Beetle (Anomala variegata) found clinging to a creeper vine under a shelter covered with creeper vine.

Near to the Anomala variegata Chafer Beetle was another Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis), munching away on a lotus leaf.

Moving to some low bushes next to the walking path, a Chafer Beetle (Apogonia aequabilis) was having its dinner.

On a tree nearby, several of this Fungus Beetle were found.

Moving along the walking path, a number of this commonly seen Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) were seen on a Hairy Clidemia plant (Clidemia hirta).

Nearby to the Adoretus compressus Chafer Beetle was a lone Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta). This was unlike the last time when I found a large number of them in a single area.

On a tree near to the Tiger Beetle was this tiny 1mm Fungus Beetle.

After walking for a while without encountering any other beetles except for the Apogonia expeditionis Chafer Beetle, this interesting looking beetle was a welcome sight.

On a tree nearby was this 5mm Darkling Beetle.

Moving into the area where I previously found many Tiger Beetles (Cicindela aurulenta), I began to see Tiger Beetles in small groups. Out of the many Tiger Beetles, my eyes were attracted to this particular one. On first glance it looked different and upon closer look, I noticed that it has one spot "missing". Only when I was looking through the photographs at home that I realised that the missing spot was a discoloration of the spot.

The sky turns pinkish-red, a sure sign that it is going to rain. Having learnt my lesson the last time where I was drench from head-to-toe, I decided to make a quick move towards the exit. While walking I found this Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea) clinging to the base of a large palm tree.

Nearing the place where I exit the garden, there was a fallen log and on it was a Fungus Beetle.

Interestingly just before the exit, I found another spot where there is a large gathering of the Cicindela aurulenta Tiger Beetle. The photograph shows only a small portion of the congregated beetles.

The last beetle was this tiny 1mm beetle that was found together with the Tiger Beetles.

The trip was good and I managed to photograph quite a number of beetles, even though there wasn't any first-time-encountered beetles as compared to the last trip. Nevertheless this is still a good trip given that the place was pretty wet after the late afternoon rain.

Night Walk At Venus Drive (01 Nov 2013)

It rained in the late afternoon but the sky cleared up in the evening. Usually if it rained in the late afternoon, I would not go for a walk to look for beetles as the chances of finding them are much lower than usual.

In view that the monsoon season has started in Singapore, I took the chance to still go for the walk since the rain has stopped. My curiosity has taken the better part of me as I was wondering what beetles I would find at the clearing that I encountered during my last trip to the place in the morning (http://beetlesg.blogspot.sg/2013/10/morning-walk-at-venus-drive-12-oct-2013.html).

The place was exceptionally dark as there was no moonlight, and as expected all the vegetations were soaking wet. The first beetle that I found was a black Fungus Beetle on a piece of white bracket fungus.

Munching on a wet leaf was a surprise find of a Chafer Beetle (Phyllophaga marginalis). Was not expecting to see it out in this wet weather.

Perching motionlessly on a leaf near by to the Chafer Beetle was this Leaf Beetle. This is one of my favorite Leaf Beetle because of its pleasant colors.

A stone's throw from the Leaf Beetle was another common Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis).

Nearing the main entrance to the Venus Drive Trail, I was pleasantly surprise to find this Long Horned Beetle (Coptops annulipes) resting motionlessly even when I was photographing it.

Near to the Long Horned Beetle was this Chafer Beetle, clinging to a blade of grass.

I reached the tree that I termed "Darkling Beetle Tree" as I usually would find multiple Darkling Beetles on it. Tonight there wasn't a single Darkling Beetle on it, instead was this small lonely 3mm Fungus Beetle.

Moving to some rotten logs, I found this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis) resting on a leaf above the log.

On a wet rotten log was a group of small 5mm Fungus Beetle.

Near to the group of Fungus Beetle was another Fungus Beetle.

Moving further down the trail, I found this Darkling Beetle (Ceropria induta). It is interesting to find this on a leaf as you would usually find this type of beetle on rotten logs instead.

Clinging to the side of the rotten log was another Fungus Beetle.

On another log nearby was this shining Darkling Beetle.

Moving closer to the clearing, I found this small 3mm Fungus Beetle having its dinner on some wet fungus.

Hiding in some leaf litters was this first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle. It looked similar to two other Fungus Beetles that I came across previously and yet different in subtle ways.

A surprise find was this 3mm Fungus Beetle (Platydema unicornis). You can easily recognise this beetle by the horn like protrusion on its head.

The first thing that I found when I reached the clearing was a fallen tree log crawling with this type of beetle larvae. I counted more than twenty of them on a single side of the fallen log. This is the first time I came across such a large number of beetle larvae on a single log.

On another fallen log was a group of Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis). Notice the number of mites it had on its back. Poor beetle!

On the other end of the fallen tree log was this small 5mm beetle. I came across this beetle frequently but sadly I was still not able identify it.

On another fallen log was a group of this colorful beetle. Note the watermarks on its elytra.

The surprise find at the clearing was this Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi). I occasionally come across one or two of this type of beetle, but on this trip I was able to find about six of them singly on different fallen logs.

On another fallen log was this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus). One thing about Fungus Beetle is that you need to look pretty closely to their spot patterns to differentiate them.

Another group of Fungus Beetle found. This is so exciting as all the logs in the clearing have different Fungus Beetles on them.

I almost tripped over some wooden vine and accidentally disturbed two Long Horned Beetle (Aeolesthes holosericeus) which promptly flew off into the bushes. Fortunately I was able to track down one of them resting on a tree leaf.

I was almost done with exploring all the fallen trees in the clearing when I found this first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle resting on a young unopened leaf. The spot pattern on this beetle is rather unique.

On a tree further down the trail away from the clearing, was this 2mm Fungus Beetle. Look how small is the mite.

On the same tree with the Fungus Beetle was this Fungus Weevil.

On a rotten log was this large 15mm larvae. This is the first time I come across such a larvae. Not sure if is a beetle larvae.

On another tree was this 5mm roundish Darkling Beetle. It looked like a squashed version of the Ceropria induta Darkling Beetle.

On the same tree were these tiny 2 mm Fungus Beetle.

Further down the trail, I found this lovely colored 1mm beetle.

The last beetle that I encountered was a Rove Beetle. Rove Beetle is one of the hardest type of beetles to photograph as they are hyper sensitive and active. They would run around the place at high speed and scatter when they encounter light. I was fortunate to be able to photograph this particular one while it was taking a short break from its running.

This trip was surprisingly successful as I managed to find and photograph thirty different beetles despite the wet weather. I am so glad that I made the decision to come to this place despite the earlier rain. As the monsoon picks with more frequent and heavier rain, I hoped that I can still keep this blog updated with more interesting beetle finds.