Morning Walk At Venus Drive (08 Nov 2014)

It rained the night before and hence I was not able to go to Upper Seletar Reservoir as originally planned. I arose early the next morning to see if I can have an early start, but to my disappointment the sky is still drizzling. Not wanting to miss my weekly walk, I decided to take a risk and set off despite the overcast and drizzling sky. My heart lifted when I was at Venus Drive as the drizzle has stopped and the sun started to peak through the gray clouds. I have chosen Venus Drive for the obvious reason that the chances of finding beetle at Venus Drive after the rain is very much higher than the other locations.

The place was very wet and I decided to head straight towards the nearby elephant ear plants (Alocasia macrorrhiza) as this is one of the best place to look for beetle after a heavy rain.

As expected, I was able to find three different beetles under the leaves of the elephant ear plants. The first beetle was a bright orange Ladybird Beetle (Chiloorus circumdatus). There were several of them found under the large protective leaves of the plants.

Near to the Ladybird Beetle was a Weevil Beetle (Cerobates sexsulcatus).

On another leaf was a pair of Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea).

After combing through the usual grass mounds without finding any beetles, I decided to head straight into the Venus Drive trail. The first beetle was a Fungus Beetle on a drenched tree branch.

One tip for "beetling" on wet weather is to look under leaves and shaded branches. And sure enough, I found another Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus) hiding under a shaded vine.

Coming to the "clearing", I carefully searched under leaves of bushes and trees. My hard work paid off with the finding of a Ladybird Beetle (Illeis koebelei). The earlier rain was really heavy as can be seen from the wetness of the leaf, even though it is the underside of the leaf.

Next to the Ladybird was a beetle larvae, which from its coloration and also its close proximity to the Illeis koebelei Ladybird, should be a Illeis koebelei Ladybird larvae.

Under the same leaf was my favorite white Ladybird Beetle.

Looking at the fallen logs at the "clearing", I managed to find several of this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis). The wetness of the place can be seen from the drenched beetle and also the log that it was on.

Not many beetles were encountered at the "clearing" and so I decided to move on. While moving away from the "clearing", I was surprised to find this long antennae beetle (likely to be a Fungus Weevil) under a thick canopy of leaves. From the length of the antennae, it should be a male beetle.

At this point, I found a new clearing and it was surprisingly full of the white Ladybird Beetles and also this Leaf Beetle (Argopus brevis).

Among the low trees at the new clearing were several of this lovely metallic blue Leaf Beetles.

While I was photographing the Leaf Beetle, a Tiger Beetle (Neocollyris celebensis) landed a short distance away. I immediately tried to photograph it but was not too successful as I only able to take this photograph before it flew into the bushes.

Still at the new clearing, I managed to spot a 3 mm Weevil Beetle hiding in between the branches of a low bush. It started to move around after a few camera shots.

Near to the Weevil Beetle was a Fungus Beetle (Senotarsus pardalis). I love to photograph this beetle because of its bright orange-red color.

Moving away from the new clearing, I finally came to the "snow" tree number 2. Here is a photograph of the snow tree. Can you spot any beetles on the tree?

Here is one of the few Fungus Beetles found on the tree.

On the "snow" tree were several large fungus mushrooms and in them were a few tiny 3 mm Fungus Beetles.
[Afternote :I was informed by David Gall that this is a Sap Beetle in the Nitidulidae family. Thanx.]

Near to the "snow" tree was a huge fallen log and on it was this tiny 4 mm beetle larvae.

Just before the trip, I was wondering what happened to the Net-winged Beetles as I have not seen them during my recent trips. While passing a newly fallen tree, I was glad to find several Net-winged Beetle (Xylobanellus erythropterus). This Net-winged Beetle is about 12 mm in size.

Near to the first Net-winged Beetle were several other Net-winged Beetles, but smaller in size. They are about half the size of the first Net-winged Beetle and I would guessed that they are probably male beetles and the first Net-winged Beetle being the female.

Moving on, I was glad to find this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus mirus) resting on the side of a fallen tree.

On the same log was this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraaspilotus). I am glad that increasingly this beetle can be seen during my weekly walks.

After trekking through a deeper part of the place, I decided to keep to the trail and not venture deeper into the forest given the amount of mud that I have picked up on my boots.  While I was walking on the trail, this Leaf Beetle landed right in front of me. I have not encounter this beetle for a while and am glad to still be able to find it, especially after a heavy rain.

The sky started to drizzle again and just then I reached the place where I first encountered the long-antennae Fungus Weevil. On the same tree log that I found the long-antennae Fungus Weevil, I found several beetles. The first one was a Fungus Beetle (Ohtaius lunulatus).

The other beetle was a Fungus Weevil. It was pretty calm and remained very still even for me to photograph it.

On the underside of the tree log was a small 5 mm Ground Beetle (Pericalus figuratus).

At the part of the tree where there was a patch of newly sprouted fungus mushrooms, a Fungus Beetle (Microsternus sp.) was having its breakfast.

Near to the tree log was a female long antennae Fungus Weevil. Noticed the shorter antennae as compared to the male as encountered earlier on.

With the weather turning bad, I decided to turn back. On the way back, I found this tiny 2 mm Ambrosia Beetle.

The last beetle of the trip was this brightly colored Leaf Beetle. This beetle some how reminded me of strawberries.

Near by was a pair of mating Leaf Beetle. I have included the photograph here to show the size difference between the male (top) and female beetle. This is also why I concluded that the earlier bigger Net-winged Beetle is a female Net-winged Beetle.

I was glad that I managed to get a few hours of good weather to look and photograph beetles. I think the monsoon has started as it was raining almost everyday. The rain would usually start in the late evening and continue until the next morning. Hopefully for the coming two months or so, I can have good weather when I take my weekly walks.

Morning Walk At Venus Drive (01 Nov 2014)

I was wanting to test out my "new" diffuser set up to see how well it works in the day, so I decided to go to Venus Drive for a walk. When I reached the location, I was sadden by the sight of the destruction made by the wild boars. Guessed that the wild boars problem was still not resolved.

During the walk, I came across this lovely flat worm (Diversibipalium rauchi).

The first beetle that greeted me was my all time favorite - a white Ladybird Beetle. It was found under a leaf of an elephant ear plant.

Under the same leaf was an Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea).

Moving on to the usual spot where I would find different types of Leaf Beetle, I am a little disappointed as I was only able to find one Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa). This is probably due to the rain earlier on as all the vegetation at the place were very wet.

Sifting through a large patch of knee-high grass, I managed to find a first-time-encountered Leaf Beetle on a blade of grass.

The human traffic along this trail was very high and this is probably the reason for the low number of critters encountered, beetle included. Searching carefully, I managed to find a beetle larvae on a huge tree.

To my pleasant surprise, I was able to find four of this Flower Chafer Beetle (Taeniodera monacha) near to a pile of chopped branches.

On a large tree was three Fungus Beetles, all nicely lined up in a row.

Next to the muddy path was a pair of Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus).

A stone's throw away from the Fungus Beetle was another Fungus Beetle (Stenotarsus nobilis nobilis).

On a dying tree next to the trail, I found this lovely Fungus Beetle.

On the same tree was another Fungus Beetle.

Further down the trail, I found a newly transformed beetle pupa.

Moving away from the busy trail and into the lesser human traffic trail, I was glad to find this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus mirus) which I have not encountered for a while.

Coming to an area of shaded grass patch, I was surprised to find several of this Spiny Leaf Beetle.

Sadly, one of the Spiny Leaf Beetle seemed to be covered with some sort of fungus. It looked like the days of this beetle is numbered.

Coming to some vines, a familiar bronze color Leaf Beetle (Graphops curtipennis) was hiding under a leaf, probably preparing for the impending rain as around this time, the sky looked very much like it was about to rain.

Picking up my pace, I walked past an area with some creeper vine and on it I found this lovely metallic blue color Leaf Beetle.

There seemed to be an increase in the number of wood piles along the Venus Drive trail and one of the piles, I found the only Checkered Beetle for this trip.

Hiding under some tree shade was a Ground Beetle (Coptodera marginata).

The sky started to rumble and it looked like it will start raining any moment. Just then, I found this tiny 1 mm Leaf Beetle that was moving about a leaf restlessly. It was a challenge to photograph such a small moving beetle and I decided to tilt the leaf to get a better angle for me to photograph. Just as my hand touched the leaf, the beetle did something unexpected - it stopped moving and froze. With it not moving, I was able to get a few good shots of it.

Along the trail was this long fallen tree - easily 6-7 meters end-to-end. To my surprise, there were several types of Fungus Beetle and beetle larvae on it.

Several pairs of this Episcapha quadrimacula Fungus Beetle were found on the fallen tree.

Crawling on the fallen tree were also several of this colorful beetle larvae.

I was elated to find this interesting Fungus Beetle on the fallen tree. It was only last week that I found this type of  beetle at the Upper Pierce Reservoir.

The sky started to drizzle and it looked like it will continue on. Before leaving the fallen tree, I managed to find another pair of Fungus Beetle. This beetle is about 1/4 of the usual Fungus Beetle.

Under the thick tree canopy, the rain was not very heavy and some critters can  still be found. A 2 mm first-time-encountered beetle was found motionless on a leaf under the thick tree canopy. It looked like a Fungus Beetle or is it a Darkling Beetle?
[Afternote :I was informed by David Gall that this is a Sap Beetle in the Nitidulidae family. Thanx.]

Venus Drive has never failed to yield a decent number of beetles even if the weather was not so favorable. This has once again proven by the number of beetle encountered on this trip. As the monsoon starts in Singapore, the chances of me going on walks will greatly be reduced - so I do hoped to be able to maintain my weekly photography sessions if the weather permits.

Night Walk At Pasir Ris Park (31 Oct 20140

It rained heavily about an hour or so before my friend and I set off for a night shoot at the Pasir Ris Park. With the wet weather, the chances of finding beetles would significantly be lower but we continued as planned.

My friend was hoping to get some photographs of snakes at the place and he had his wish came true with the encounter with two Painted Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis pictus) and an Oriental Whip Snake (Ahaetulla prasina). It was really fortunate as the chances of finding snakes immediately after a heavy rain is as high as finding beetles after the rain.

The first few beetles that greeted us were the commonly encountered Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus). These few beetles were drenched by the heavy rain.

On a patch of  Rhododendron plant (Melastoma malabathricum) was a group of this Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis).

High up a tree trunk near by was a lone 5 mm Darkling Beetle. In good situation I would move on and not photograph it, but given the heavy rain I decided to photograph whatever beetles that I can find. Even mean stretching a little further to get the shot.

Moving to a large tree with many low hanging branches, we found a host of different types of Chafer Beetles among its leaves. Apart from the Adoretus compressus and Apogonia expeditionis Chafer Beetle, one of them was this Aprosterna pallide Chafer Beetle.

Another one was this Maladera castanea Chafer Beetle.

The last type of Chafer Beetle found on the tree was this Apogonia aequabilis Chafer Beetle.

Moving closer to the Pasir Ris Park's mangrove board walk, more of this 3 mm Darkling Beetles were found.

Under a leaf was this bright yellow beetle larvae.

The surprise for the night was when we encountered a colony of Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta).

Here is a shot of a portion of the colony.

Walking on the mangrove boardwalk, a small 5 mm bronze colored Ground Beetle was found resting on a sawed tree trunk.

On a Sea Hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum) along the boardwalk were several of this Leaf Beetle. This type of Leaf Beetle are usually found on the Sea Hibiscus plant.

The highlight of the trip was this first-time-encountered Weevil Beetle, found in a grass patch.

In the same grass patch were several of this bronze color Leaf Beetle.

Near to the Leaf Beetle was this first-time-encountered Tortoise Beetle (Aspidomorpha furcata).

The last beetle of the trip was this a tiny 3 mm Ground Beetle (Pentagonica marshalli).

The number of beetles encountered was exceptionally good given the wet weather, and finding two first-time-encountered beetles was a bonus for the trip. This may be a good place for night shoot if the weather is better.