Lower Pierce, 7 July 2010

Awesome second trip to Lower Pierce; we saw much again!

We were greeted by none other than Lyssa Zampa itself! This was however a smaller one compared to that sighted during our last visit. And it was surprisingly less flighty!

Throughout the night we encountered several moths and butterflies.

I particularly love hairy caterpillars! They are adorable :D

Huntsman spider (Family: Sparassidae).

Another hairy caterpillar!

One of the most exciting sightings of the night, a pretty stick insect (that James spotted)!

Common two-tailed spider (or tree trunk spider).

This fly was tiny yet it proved to have the most interesting colours!

Giant forest ant carrying an ant grub (larva), personally one of the best sights of the night indeed!

Pretty grasshopper.

Forest cockroach, which had been sighted also on previous trips.

Spider (Genus: Cyclosa) which creates "fake spiders" using its prey carcasses for use as camouflage.

My first sighting of a stick insect in the wild!

Another gorgeous moth.

Cricket usually have long antennae while grasshoppers have short ones.

This hairy friend looks like the one spotted earlier, but in a different colour (black instead of white).

Katydid.

Orb weaver spider.

As we were about to leave, the Lyssa Zampa sighted earlier actually came to see us off! It is recognizable by the broken left wing. It flew about us and actually settled on James' arms for awhile!

While we were making our last survey of the vegetation we saw a Great Mormon caterpillar (?) which imitates bird poo as means of camouflage. What an innovation!

One of two praying mantises of the same species that James spotted.

Again, short trip, but once again many interesting sightings and creatures!

Lower Pierce, 3 July 2010

Virgin trip to Lower Pierce, but a very short one. Nonetheless, there was much to see!

These scorpions were very common, usually found on trees or on leaf blades.

We were enthralled to see the house centipede at the start of our trip! According to James they are not common. Besides that, the look of it is enough to send many running for their lives.

The common two-tailed spider (Hersilia sp.), also known as the tree trunk spider.

A very well-camouflaged crab spider (Family: Thomisidae).

A handsome bug whose identity I do not yet know..

The caterpillar that likes to hang itself on a thread, for reason(s) James and I could not surmise.

As we trudged further inwards we were thrilled to find another house centipede, this time at a spot where we were able to take better shots of it! Here's James's much closer shot of it showing its "face".

Spider with a whole cluster of ant/termite carcasses in its web.

A pretty spider whose identity I do not know as well.

Giant forest ant (Camponotus gigas) with its relative close by.

A bristletail, a wingless insect that is among the least evolutionarily changed insects.

Beautiful moth which resembles a leaf. Check out its amazing pair of antennae (or feelers)!

One might wonder, how do we tell a moth apart from a butterfly? One way is via the antennae. Moths often have comb-like or feathery antennae, or filamentous and unclubbed antennae. Butterflies, however, have thin slender filamentous antennae which are clubbed at the end.

Moving on we saw a harvestman (Order: Opiliones) feeding. Harvestmen are not true spiders though they bear close resemblance to them. This one had only 5 legs instead of 8.

Could this be a golden web spider?

Once again the really cool whip spider which looks nothing like a spider.

As we were making our way back we sighted this huge Lyssa Zampa (wing span of about 10 cm). It was shy and very flighty, and disappeared before we could get better shots of it.

Orb weaver spider (Family: Araneidae).

Katydid, which was amongst one of my many first sightings during this second terrestrial trip.

A cricket with most sophisticated patterns on its body!

Thanks James for lending me his Canon D10 to try my hands on manual photography and hence the marvellous photos as made possible. I'm definitely looking forward to discovering more of nature's treasures, within our very own forests!