Lower Pierce, 19 Dec 2010

After quite a long hiatus, finally a nice long night trip to Lower Pierce with James :) A couple of strange creatures (which I would highlight later)!

A wasp on a leaf.

A scarab beetle.

James has a keen eye for stick insects; he spotted all of the stick insects we saw during this trip.

Giant forest ants (Camponotus gigas) which always fascinate me with their humongous size compared to their other ant counterparts (hence the number of photos that I took of them). They are often scurrying fast around.

These are both giant forest ants! The difference is that one is a major worker (the bigger one) and the other, a minor worker.

Weevils are cute! And like beetles, they adopt the "drop and flight" (as I call it) defense mechanism when they feel threatened. Meaning they will fall straight off from where they were, making it hard for the predator to find them amongst the leaf litter underneath.

James spotted this beauty! I wonder what butterfly it would turn into :)

A derbid.

A kind of leaf bug which I have never seen before!

As usual, spiders were everywhere.

A Sparassid. Doesn't it look so furry!

Cool finds of the night! First a cricket with unusual body patterns. It seemed to be drinking from the drop of water.

Not far from the cricket was a very beautiful tiny caterpillar!

Then James spotted this very unique cricket - check out its legs with "spines".

A leaf bug which I have never encountered before.

James pointed out this cluster of baby spiders! Up close they look really adorable!

We later found this mother spider carrying a cluster of egg sacs.

Then I found this bunch of beautiful tiny egg cases (James suggest they might even be very very tiny caterpillars).

Last but not least, long-horned beetle! When James first spotted it, he commented that it looked like it was just chilling out. Indeed :)

See also the post by James on the trip, with some different sightings and even more awesome pictures!