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.

Surprised Find From Changi Beach (17 Feb 2021)

It has been a while that I last posted anything in this blog. It was due to multiple reasons for the lack of activities, but primarily due the reason that I got lazy due to Covid-19 measures, and also the rekindling of one of my "old" hobbies - inter-tidal walks which competed with the macro-photography sessions. May be I should consider starting a blog on inter-tidal walks in Singapore.

It was on one of these recent inter-tidal walks that reminded me of something that I "discovered" years ago at the Changi Beach, which I am sharing now in this blog - beetle larvae can be found on Changi Beach. Yes, you read it correctly, I "discovered" that you can regularly find beetle larvae at Changi Beach during low tides. 

Here's where beetle larvae can be found at Changi Beach. You can literally find beetle larvae lying on their sides on the sand, very much like a sea-shell or the commonly encountered Pink Warty Sea Cucumber at Changi Beach. Interestingly these beetle larvae are very buoyant and are able to float in sea water. 

During one of my recent trips to Changi Beach, I managed to find two beetle larvae at the beach. Out of curiosity as to what kind of beetle these larvae are from, I decided to bring them home to see if I can  raise them into adult beetles. Sadly, one didn't make the trip and was dead upon arrival at my home. 

When I "discovered" them years ago, I have a strong suspicion that these beetle larvae are from neighboring islands such as Pulau Ubin, Tekong Island or even Malaysia.  Looking at the larvae, they are likely to be the larvae of Coconut Beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) or Rhinoceros Beetle (Xylotrupes gideon).

Here's the photographs of the beetle larva that remained.

Upon closer examination of the beetle larva at home, it looks very much like a Oryctes rhinoceros larva. Hopefully I can keep the larva to maturity and see if my observation is correct. I will update if I am successful in raising the larva to adult beetle.

Night Walk At Tampines Eco Green (27 Oct 2020)

 It has been raining a lot in Singapore recently and together with my busy schedule, I have not done any macro photography session for quite a while. Taking the opportunity that the weather was pretty dry for the day, HW and I decided to go for a night macro session at Tampines Eco Green,

As mentioned in my previous post, there seemed to be something wrong with my camera that caused the focus of my camera not as sharp as before. Nevertheless, I am determined to get some photographs during this session.

Here's a photograph of an Asian Red and Black Long Horn Grasshopper. I particularly like this shot as the brown dried grass seeds contrasted strongly with the grasshopper. 

Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus) ~ 8 mm

Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) ~ 8 mm

First-time-encounter Long Horne Beetle (~15 mm) found on the boarding put up for the constructions along the Tampines river.

Chafer Beetle (Aprosterna pallide) ~ 8 mm

Chafer Beetle (Maladera castanea) ~ 5 mm

Gold Dust Weevil (Hypomece squamosus) ~ 15 mm

Although the trip was not fruitful, the Gold Dust Beetle encountered near the end of our trip has made the trip worth the while as it has been years I last encountered the Gold Dust Beetle.

Night Walk At Windsor Nature Park (09 Oct 2020)

 After getting over the inertia of going out of the house, HW and I decided to go to Windsor Nature Park for our regular macro photography session. It could possibly be too long that I didn't use my camera, my camera was working up and I was having problems with taking proper shots through out the trip. The camera kept refusing to focus properly and the aperture also kept freezing up in between shots.  Nevertheless, here are some of the more presentable photographs for the night. Please pardon some of the slightly out of focus shots.

A relatively big Tree Hopper (~ 25mm) was the first critter encountered at the place.

Beetle larva ~ 2 mm

Ground Beetle (Onyptergia longispinis) ~ 25 mm

Rove Beetle ~ 3 mm

Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis) ~ 8 mm

Daarkling Beetle ~ 3 mm

Darkling Beetle (Ceropria superba) ~ 10 mm

Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) ~ 8 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 10 mm

Darkling Beetle (Gonocephalum depressum) ~ 15 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 5 mm

Ground Beetle ~ 25 mm

Chafer Beetle ~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus tetraspilotus) ~ 10 mm

This trip was not particularly fruitful, partially because of the weather and partially due to the malfunctioning of my camera. Nevertheless, this is still a good trip especially it is after a while of non-action.

Close Encounter With Coconut Beetle - Oryctes rhinoceros (09 Sep 2020)

 I got lazy. Ever since the Covid-19 Circuit Breaker was in force in early Apr 2020, my weekly routine of macro-photography was disrupted. The last time I went for a macro photography session was on 26 Jun 2020.  

Recently, someone sent me two photographs of a Xylotrupes beckeri Rhinoceros Beetle that the person found in Singapore. On first glance, I thought that it is Xylotrupes gideon, but upon closer examination it looked like Xylotrupes beckeri instead. Not aware that Xylotrupes beckeri is native to Singapore, I consulted an expert and found out that there were previous records of Xylotrupes beckeri being found in Singapore. Thanks to this Xylotrupes beckeri, my interests in beetles was once again rekindled. Hopefully, I will resume my macro photography sessions soon. Here are the two photographs that I received (PS: I have gotten permission to use the photographs):

With my renewed interests in macro photography, I was fortunate to come across a pair of Coconut Beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros):

By now, you would have noticed that the male and female Coconut Beetle look similar. To differentiate between male and female Coconut Beetle, all you need to do is to look at the tip of the beetle's abdomen. Only the female Coconut Beetle has hairs at the tip of their abdomen. 

BTW, the blog editor was changed recently and I am still getting used to the new blog editor. Nevertheless, I will keep to the look and feel of Beetles@SG. If there are differences, appreciate your understanding and continuous support. Thank you.