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.