Admiralty Park, 21 July 2010

A very short trip to Admiralty Park, but nonetheless some very pleasant finds. Our eight-legged friends were prominent as ever.

Huntsman spider (Sparassid).

Argiope sp.?

I wonder what this spider was feasting on. James postulates that it was a moth.

This (whip spider?) looks extremely queer! I have no idea what this fascinating creature was feeding on.

Earlier one of its kind was seen feeding (on a moth?).

Brown huntsman spider (Heteropoda venatoria).

Lynx spider (Oxyopidae)? James caught some cannibalism in action.

Also commonly seen were grasshoppers and crickets. My very first encounter with a mating pair of grasshoppers!

I love the eyes of this cricket.

Cricket nymph, small but beautiful.

Monkey hopper?

We saw these bumps on the leaves of a shrub. Probably galls which, as unappealing as they may look, may serve different purposes. These include being structures protecting insect larvae. An interesting essay on galls by Joseph Lai sheds light on these amazing structures.

Mantis nymph.

Fly.

Wasp. So beautiful!

Brahminy blind snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus), which was really tiny (4-5 cm long) and moved extremely fast; when the camera got too close it literally disappeared out of sight.

Caterpillar egg case or cocoon, same as that sighted at Chestnut Avenue on last night trip.

Forest cockroach with an interesting "shield" that protects its head.

James spotted this gecko among the bushes.

Thankfully some caterpillars were out and about, they always make my day! The ones we saw on this trip were astounding beauties.

This looked like it had chocolate chips lined on its back.

Last but not least, the find of the day! When James and I were heading back to the carpark I spotted a dark blob on the gravel path and alerted James about it. The excitement when James exclaimed, "It's a tarantula!" is still vivid in my mind. And boy, that I could well have dismissed it as some poo. So here it is, my very first ever tarantula!

If you look at the above picture carefully, there is a white speck on its back some distance away from its eyes. Zoom in on it and you will see what looks like a tick or louse!

Despite being a man-made park that is highly impacted by humans, Admiralty Park nonetheless serves as an important habitat for many organisms. Besides the above creatures we saw many others; James' blog entry covers some interesting finds such as a cute looking cockroach nymph and a tiny centipede that had blue-coloured legs and turquoise-coloured head which couldn't be noticed with our naked eyes!

Chestnut Avenue, 17 July 2010

My very first time at Chestnut Avenue. Saw a tremendous amount of nature in the few hours that James and I were there.

The very first thing I saw from this trip left a deep impression on me. It was a larva in a bubble cocoon!

My first encounter with these monkey hoppers. How aptly they are called! They were almost everywhere.

One of my most exciting finds of the day was this shield bug. Whilst trying to get a good focus on this bug, it actually peed! Alas, it happened too abruptly, I did not manage to capture that exulting moment.

My very first time chancing upon a longhorn beetle (Cerambycidae) as well!

Tortoise-shelled beetle, my very first too. It was extremely shy and walked in a wobbly fashion away as fast as it could to avoid the light from my torch. Isn't it so very pretty!

This moves! Seems like a kind of tube worm.

In this trip alone we saw a couple of really cool caterpillars!

This melon thorax caterpillar (thanks James) was really intriguing.

This one had a really cool pink shade on its head!

Caterpillar cocoon?

Likely a silk moth pupa, like this one.

Intricate caterpillar egg cases or cocoons; this looked like a fancy bead..

..and this, planet Jupiter!

Mantid ootheca (egg case).

James shared that this was an example of an ant that had been programmed to chew the stalk of the plant; such an ant had most likely been parasitized by a fungus and would eventually die. This one here had most likely already been dead for some time as the fungus had already emerged from it.

My first thread-legged bug.

A curious looking Hemiptera, perhaps the planthopper Epiptera europea? The fashion in which it walked was really amusing.

Throughout the trip, grasshoppers, crickets and katydids "popped up" here and then; how beautiful they all were! As there were so very many of them, I compiled a collage of the different ones that I encountered.

It always tickled me to behold the scratching action that the grasshoppers seemed to enjoy doing.

And those shown above were not all that we saw. Amongst many other creatures that we saw were lynx spiders, pill bugs, forest roaches and other interesting bugs. Here is James' account of the trip in light of his own experience. Would I say Chestnut Avenue is a treasure trove of wildlife? For sure yes!