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Sunday 8 June 2014

Night Walk At Lower Pierce Reservoir (06 June 2014)

It rained heavily in the afternoon and it seemed that the chances of going for a night walk was very slim. Thankfully the rained stopped in the evening and I can still go for my night shoot, albeit the chances of finding beetles after the rain was not very good. Nevertheless it was a choice between Venus Drive and Lower Pierce Reservoir. In the end, Lower Pierce Reservoir was chosen as I have not fully explored the "new" clearing that I found at the place.

For those who have no idea how the Lower Pierce Reservoir's clearing looked like, here is a shot of the place using my handphone camera as I was lazy in switching to a wide angle lens, especially in the dark.


The first beetle that appear was a commonly encountered 10 mm Darkling Beetle. The unusual thing about this particular specimen was that it was resting on a leaf, unlike the usual rotting logs that they are usually found on.


The next beetle is one of my favorite beetle - Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi). The place was crawling with this type of beetle and I easily find a few tens of them at the clearing.


Not only the Catascopus dalbertisi Ground Beetle came out in numbers, even this small 5-6mm Darkling Beetle were out in number, there are easily 100 of them at the clearing.


Well camouflaged on a fallen tree logs were many of this type of Fungus Weevil.


Near to the Fungus Weevil was this Chafer Beetle(Adoretus compressus), still wet from the earlier heavy rain. Interestingly, I only managed to find 3 of this type of beetle; a complete opposite to the large number of Darking Beetles and Fungus Beetles.


As mentioned, there was a large aggregation of this Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula). Interestingly, this is the only place so far that I see Fungus Beetle congregate in such a large number.


This Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis) was almost invisible with its perfect camouflage on this tree log.



A tiny 3 mm Fungus Beetle was moving in and out of its covers between two plate of fungus.


Moving around the clearing, I was surprised to find a few of this Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta). They reminded me of the "lost" colony of Tiger Beetle that I found at the Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West.


I finally came to the part where there was a large tree that had fallen over. Previously I found a number of beetles on it and with much anticipation, I searched the tree for beetles. The very first beetle I found on the tree was this Ground Beetle (Pericalus figuratus).


Moving to another part of the tree, I found this Ground Beetle (Minuthodes multisetosa) moving in a odd jerky manner.


Only a few centimeters away was this mating pair of Weevil Beetles.


Moving quickly on the tree log was this bronze color Ground Beetle. It is about half the size of the Catascopus dalbertisi Ground Beetle.


Just like the odd Darkling Beetle that I found on a leaf earlier on, this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus) was found on a leaf, far from its usual rotten wood habitat.


Moving back to the large fallen tree, another Weevil Beetle was found walking aimlessly on the tree log. It was possibly confused by the camera flashes.


On the dry underside of the fallen tree was this tiny 3 mm Darkling Beetle. Notice the really tiny critter next to this Darkling Beetle.


The highlight of the trip was the finding of this first-time-encountered Ground Beetle. This beetle was super alert and would quickly hide when it sensed light or movements.


A Long Horned Beetle (Eoporis elegans) was found on another part of the fallen tree.


On a fallen log nearby was this large first-time-encountered 15 mm Darkling Beetle, this is about double the size of the other Darkling Beetles that I came across earlier on.


Another surprised found was this Fungus Beetle (Encymon scintillans). This was the second time I came across this type of beetle, the first time was at the Admiralty Park. A even greater surprise was that I managed to find another two of this beetle just a few meters from this Fungus Beetle.


Time flew by quickly and it was about time to go home. The last beetle before I leave the place was this female Fungus Weevil (Anthribus wallacei).


The trip turned out to be better than expected especially with the finding of two first-time-encountered beetles and also a few of the not so frequently encountered beetles.

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