Night Walk At Lower Pierce Reservoir (25 Apr 2014)

The weather was looking fine when I headed towards the Lower Pierce Reservoir but was sadden by the light drizzle as I was about to reach the place. The place was drenched to the bone and the hope of finding any beetles seemed so remote.

Instead of heading straight to new place that I "discover" last week, I decided to take a detour to another spot that I have not explore before. To my surprise, the first beetle that I encounter was this Fungus Beetle (Amblyopus vittatus). The place was so wet that you can even see a drop of water on the beetle.

The next beetle was not a surprise, it was a Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus).

Moving to a small plant nearby, I found a small 8 mm beetle resting on a leaf. At first glace I thought that it was a Aprosterna pallide Chafer Beetle, but upon closer look it turned out to be a first-time-encountered beetle. I am not too sure what type of beetle it is but I would hazard a guess that it is a Fungus Beetle.

Moving towards a fallen log, I found this lone Fungus Beetle.

Next to the fallen log was this cute Chafer Beetle.

Moving further, I found a tree with several beetles on it. The first one was a Long Horned Beetle (Coptops annulipes). It looked rather different in terms of its coloration of its elytra but the difference could be that this is a female specimen.

Next to the Coptops annulipes Long Horned Beetle was a Fungus Weevil (Sitboderes impressus). As with its name, the coloration of this beetle is pretty stunning.

Near the feet of these two beetles were several really tiny beetles. They looked like Fungus Beetles.

On another tree was this Darkling Beetle, resting motionlessly probably due to the earlier rain.

On the same tree was this brown 8 mm beetle.

On another tree was this Fungus Weevil.

Moving to some low bushes, I found this interesting pair of Chafer Beetle that looked familiar and yet not. This could be another first-time-encountered Chafer Beetle.

Moving further down the low bushes, I found this first-time-encountered Ground Beetle (Pentagonica marshalli).

On a next plant to the Pentagonica marshalli Ground Beetle, another first-time-encountered Ground Beetle (Pentagonica flavipes). I am so glad be able to find two first-time-encountered Ground Beetles at the same time.

Just when I am about to come out of the detour, a Leaf Beetle was found a leaf near the place where I exit. This is one of my favorite Leaf Beetle.

Moving closer to the "clearing" area, I am surprised to find a lone Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta) resting on a leaf.

Near to the Tiger Beetle was a first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle. This beetle looked like the usual black Fungus Beetle, just that it is entirely coffee-brown in color.

At the "entrance" to the "clearing", a Leaf Beetle (Colasposoma auropenne) was sleeping on the leaf. It started to move about after a few shots.

The first critter that I found at the "clearing" was this beetle larvae.

On a fallen log were these three amigos Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula).

On the same log was a pair of this large Darkling Beetle.

On another log was this lovely metallic colored Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi). Interestingly, there were a number of this beetle on all the fallen logs at the place, just like the "clearing" at Venus Drive.

I was hoping to find the lovely yellow Illeis koebelei Ladybird Beetle but was only able to find its pupa.

The most amazing thing about this trip was to find tens if not hundreds of this type of Darkling Beetles congregated on all the fallen logs at the place.

On a log was this tiny 1 mm first-time-encountered Fungus Beetle.

At the center of the "clearing" is a large fallen tree and on it were many types of beetles. One of them was this Ground Beetle (Pericalus tetrastigma).

Crawling hurriedly along the tree was this Weevil Beetle.

Cling on the side of the tree was this large 20 mm Darkling Beetle (Promethis valga). I saw a Promethis valga Darkling Beetle during last week's trip at around the same place, may be this is the same one that I saw.

Moving gingerly at the side of the tree was this Ground Beetle (Coptodera marginata).

Another Weevil Beetle was found on the tree log but unlike the other Weevil Beetle this particular one remained very still.

Time passing by quickly and it was time for me to leave the place. Just as I was about to leave, this Long Horned Beetle (Anacylus griseatus) flew right in front of me.

The trip was exceptionally fruitful despite of the heavy rain. I am surprised to be able to find so many different beetles even after the rain. This place surely can rival Venus Drive in terms of finding beetles.

Morning Walk At Venus Drive (19 Apr 2014)

I happened to be free in the morning and so I decided to go to Venus Drive for a quick walk. The place was pretty wet with dew and everything looks bright and fresh. Instead of the usual photograph of the path of the trail, I decided to use a photograph of some interesting fungus mushroom that can be found at Venus Drive.

The first beetle for the morning was a Net-winged Beetle.

The next beetle was a pleasant find as it dropped out of a rotting log while I was looking closely at the log for beetles. This Bess Beetle (Aceraius grandis) was pretty restless and disappeared into a crevice in the log within a seconds that it dropped.

Near to the Bess Beetle were some while fungus growing and on it was a small 4 mm Fungus Beetle. While preparing the photograph, I also noticed that there were a number of Springtails on the fungus.

On the same fungus were several beetle larvae. Guessed that this could be the larvae of the Fungus Beetle above.

Very quickly I reached the clearing area and the first critter that greeted me was this beetle larvae that looked very much like it was wearing a Batman suite.

As I was photographing the beetle larvae, I noticed some yellow specks flying around and as I moved closer to take a look, I found a large number of this lovely yellow color Ladybird (Illeis koebelei) on several trees. This is the first time that I came across so many Illeis koebelei Ladybird Beetle at one place. I must add that while the number of Ladybird Beetles was large, the number of mosquitoes was even larger. I was a little irritated by the mosquitoes. Fortunately I had some insect repellent with me and I managed to fend off the attacks  for a while.

Resting on a leaf nearby was a Fungus Weevil.

I found a large group of this 10 mm size Net-winged Beetle having a party on a fallen log. Interesting to see so many of this beetle at one spot.

On another log was a Fungus Beetle. It is good to see many of this type of Fungus Beetle around as it shows that they managed to survived the dry spell. This is not so for the Eumorphus politus and Eumorphus tetraspilotus Fungus Beetles, which I have not seen any of them since the start of the dry spell.

As mentioned before that every time I visit the Venus Drive clearing, I would look for the white Ladybird Beetle. For this trip I am so glad to find a number of them.

While photographing the white Ladybird Beetle, I saw this lovely colored Fungus Weevil. It is a rare opportunity to photograph it as it is a rather skittish beetle and would fly away when it detects any movements.

Still in the clearing, a Leaf Beetle (Graphops curtipennis) was seen sunning itself on a leaf.

Flying around the place was a Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana).

Hiding under some foliage was this Fungus Weevil.

On this trip, I was able to find two of this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis) which is a good indication that they survived the dry spell.

I was at the clearing for almost an hour and it was time to move on. Just as I was leaving the clearing, a Net-winged Beetle was found resting on a leaf by the pathway.

Passing by a fallen tree, I found a patch of white fungus and a lovely patterned Fungus Beetle on it.

On a tree next to the Fungus Beetle were to tiny 2 mm Fungus Beetle planning for the next generation.

After the clearing, the next stop was the "Snow Tree 2" which yielded many different types of beetle the last time I found it (http://beetlesg.blogspot.sg/2014/04/night-walk-at-venus-drive-11-apr-2014.html). I am curious what I will find in the day and the first beetle I found on the tree was a Checkered Beetle.

Interestingly a Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus) was seen crawling up and down the tree.

Another Checkered Beetle landed right in front of me, as if it would like to have its photograph taken.

A Ground Beetle (Pericalus figuratus) was found on the tree. It was well camouflaged but its presence was given away by its small spurts of movements.

There were several 5 mm round holes in the tree and fortunately I managed to find one with a beetle still busily making the hole. Interestingly I found a few colorful tiny silverfish like insect near to the holes.

The highlight of the trip was the finding of this large (~ 25 mm) Jewel Beetle on the "Snow Tree 2".

Just like in the night during the last trip, the mosquitoes at this place were vicious and "attacked" me even though I had the insect repellent on. I finally gave up serving out my blood buffet to the mosquitoes and call it a day. While turning back, I came across this small 3 mm Tumbling Flower Beetle (Mordella holomelanena) resting under a shade.

Just when I reached the exit of the trail, I am so happy to find this Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) resting on a leaf. I have not seen this Leaf Beetle for a while since the dry spell and am glad to have encounter it on this trip.

The last beetle of the trip was also a Leaf Beetle, which landed next to the Lema diversa Leaf Beetle while I was photographing it. What a great way to end the trip.

Interestingly, I didn't encounter any "new" beetle on this trip but it was still a fruitful one with many beetles encountered. The number of mosquitoes seemed to have increased at this place, do remember to bring along insect repellent if you are planning to visit the place, unless you don't mind doing some blood donation while you are there.

Morning Walk At Lower Pierce Reservoir (18 Apr 2014)

Taking the opportunity that it was the Good Friday holiday, I was thinking of showing my wife the Venus Drive trail that I been talking so much about in this blog. With much expectation we headed to Venus Drive. When we reached the place, my heart sank as the place was packed with people and the car park was full. With no other choices, I decided to give the Lower Pierce Reservoir a try. Fortunately the place was not crowded like that of the Venus Drive.  I was not expecting much from this trip as previous trips to this place was not exceptionally fruitful especially in the day.

I was pleasantly surprised to have this lovely metallic blue Leaf Beetle as the first beetle for the trip.

The next beetle was a 3 mm Fungus Beetle that found among some tall grass.

I must have not come to this place for a long time as the place changed quite a fair bit with some construction going on. I was surprised to find an area that looked like the clearing at Venus Drive and without any hesitations, I make a bee-line to it. The first beetle I found at there excited me as it was an Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea). The last encounter with this type of beetle was at Venus Drive and it was a lone specimen. At this place I found a tree full of this beetle, easily more than 10 of them.

On another tree nearby, I found this yellow color pupa of the Illeis koebelei Ladybird Beetle.

Not surprisingly, I found several of the adult Ladybird Beetle (Illeis koebelei).

Moving to an area of fallen trees, I found a few Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula). It was interesting to observe that many of these beetles started to come out when the sky became dark and threatening to rain.

Moving along a fallen tree, I found several of this lovely colored beetle larvae. This may be the larvae of the Episcapha quadrimacula Fungus Beetle since the place was crawling with this type of beetle.

A big surprise was to find this relatively large 8 mm Hister Beetle or Clown Beetle. All the Hister Beetle that I came across previously are mostly 3-4 mm in size. This particular specimen looked very much like  Hololepta plana, but differ slightly in the shape of its pronotum. Without other obvious differences, I would identify it asHololepta plana at this point in time.

Just as I was enjoying the time photographing the Hister Beetle, a large Jewel Beetle suddenly landed on the same tree trunk as the Hister Beetle. This particular Jewel Beetle was pretty skittish and disappeared after a few camera shots.

Staying motionlessly on the side of a tree were two Checkered Beetles. They are highly sensitive and both flew off just after one photograph.

They were well camouflaged and only with the camera flash that their colors appeared.

On another tree log was this beetle larvae. There were several of them at the place and it is a sure sign that the beetles are recovering or recovered from the dry spell which ended a few weeks back.

Another well camouflage beetle - a Fungus Weevil resting on a fallen log.

I am so happy that I was able to find another Hister Beetle (Platysoma leconti) among some white fungus. This is about 3 mm in size, which is relatively small compared to the earlier Hister Beetle (Hololepta plana).

Crawling quickly along the fallen tree was this Ambrosia Beetle. It was fun looking at this beetle as they tend to be rather clumsy and fall over every now and then.

Just when I was enjoying the number of beetles found at this "clearing", the wind picked up and the sky above was rumbling away. It was about to rain and likely to be heavily given the darkness of the clouds. Just before I decided to go, this Fungus Beetle appeared and hurriedly move across the while fungus.

The trip was surprisingly fruitful even though it was a short one because of the rain. I am glad to have come here and found this new "clearing" which look promising for a good night shoot session.