Dairy Farm Road, 13 July 2010

My first trip to Dairy Farm Road! Lots of spiders, grasshoppers and crickets.

The orb weaver spiders were pretty common.

I'm not sure what spider this is though!

Ogre-faced spider (Dinopis sp.) which is nocturnal and usually hangs upside down, holding an expandable net of sticky silk between the two front legs. Should an insect pass by below the net, the ogre-faced spider stretches out the net, lunges downwards and flings the net over the prey.

Can this Dinopis spider be making an egg sac? Apparently its egg sac is spherical and looks like the planet Jupiter (like this)!

A Dinopis with its net which was pale blue in colour and really beautiful.

An orb weaver feeding on a mantis?

Garden spider.

Lynx spiders were relatively common too! Aren't they such pretty spiders?

This mum was guarding her egg sac, where a few baby spiders could be seen on the egg sac. James has a nice photo of the babies here.

Many many different kinds of grasshoppers and crickets. They have such beautiful beady eyes and body patterns!

Spotted by James, this one seemed to have just emerged from its moult. Really fascinating to me as its my first time seeing this!

And more grasshoppers/crickets.

Some katydids were sighted as well. They are relatives of the grasshoppers and crickets. This one, as commented by James, that looks like its back had been burnt by a cigar.

A beautiful moth whose identity is yet known to me.

I have no idea what this bug is too.

Snails were common too.

A planthopper, so named because of their close resemblance to leaves. They often "hop" in a similar fashion as the grasshoppers but usually walk very slowly so as not to attract attention.

A really cute looking moth.

Either a Dark Brand Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus macromalayana) or the Long Brand Bush Brown (Mycalesis visala phamis) (thanks Horace).

Mantis.

Another moth whose identity is yet known to me.

A hemipteran, which is a true bug.

Pretty orange beetle (?).

Shield bug which has very queer and really amusing behaviour. It kept trying to avoid the light from my torch, and walked up and down, turning around 360 degrees slowly from time to time.

There were many of these limoniid crane flies as well, and most of them were very flighty.

Last but not least, a very small moth that was positioned pretty high up on a tree.

Upper Seletar, 10 July 2010

My first trip to Upper Seletar with James and Marcus, with some fascinating finds!

An unknown egg case that was bilaterally symmetrical.

Busy ant. Ants often make bad photography subjects as they tend to scurry around, really fast.

A huntsman spider?

Golden web spider.

Marcus spotted this stick insect.

And this painted chorus frog (Microhyla butleri) which quickly jumped off out of sight.

Tiny fungi growing along some of the tree trunks.

Harvestmen were commonly sighted.

I found this mysterious looking moth which looked like a rabbit, as James commented.

Marcus spotted this pretty blue-coloured skipper (Family: Hesperiidae).

Derbid planthopper with vibrant colours.

Whilst examining a hanging caterpillar I found this house centipede resting on a leaf just behind me!

This caterpillar had amazing long false antennae at its tail end.

And it looks really cute too!

The hanging caterpillar which I was shooting earlier. These seem to be pretty common and I have seen them on other night trips elsewhere.

On this trip alone we sighted several other caterpillars.

I really wonder what the ID of this alien-looking caterpillar is.

Cricket nymph with exceptionally huge jaws.

A very tiny bug, but such beauty!

A fungus infected fly, my first time seeing one.

Marcus found this scorpion feeding on a cockroach. James has a cool photo of this taken under UV light here.

Before we left, Marcus found a toad that puffed itself up big, apparently attempting to scare us off. Look how cute its pose is!