Penang rocky beach exploration

Brought my family to Penang for holiday last week. Our hotel was just by the beach. I did an exploration along the beach on the final day of the trip. The first creature that crossed my path was this Common Bluetail damselfly (Ischnura senegalensis) seen on the young leaf of the Canavalia cathartica.

Among the Beach Morning Glory were some leaf-footed bugs, which I had seen back in Singapore as well.

The side view from the same bug.

There was a rocky outcrop along the beach that look very seductive to me. Indeed, it was a great place with many plants that I had yet had the chance to see in Singapore. The only annoying thing was the furious and hungry swam of mosquitos.

This was a young branch of bright red leaves high up on the trunk of a Spotted Fig tree.  All the rest of the leaves were green except for this particular branch.

A tiny green caterpillar with a long horn-like tail was seen on a leaf stalk of an unknown plant. It is likely to be an early instar of a Hawkmoth caterpillar.

This might be a type of cotton-stainer bug although the all-black wing did not resemble the one commonly seen here. It was feeding on the young fruits of the Blind-your-eye tree.

The red underside of the bug.

Finally, two more caterpillars before I ended my short but fun exploration. The first one was feeding on the flower buds of the Christmas Bush.

The second one was feeding on the leaf of Love-in-a-mist creeper.

I did visited the Spice Garden and the Butterfly Farm but had not decided whether to show some pictures on my blog.

Late morning walk at the park

In contrast to the late afternoon walks previously, I started my round at the park today in the late morning. I would have started earlier if not due to the drizzle in the early morning.

The first creature that caught my attention was this tiny yellow spider on the leaf of the Giant Sword fern. It may be a crab spider.

As usual, a lot of the giant shield bugs (Pycanum rubens) were seen among the leaves of the Simpoh Air plant. This is one of its colourful nymph.

Bushes of Blue Snakeweed were blooming profusely with purplish flowers which attracted a lot of flower lovers. This orange skipper was one of them.

Oriental Whip Snake (Ahaetulla prasina) was seen in several occasions at the tiny forested part of the park. I had always suspected that more than one of them should be available here although I had seen one all the while. The one seen today should be a young snake in view of its size when compared to the ones seen previously.

I saw these beautiful caterpillars on the Giant milkweed about 2 weeks ago. This time round, they were found on a different plant, the Balloon Cotton Bush (Gomphocarpus physocarpus). One of them was munching on the flower instead of the leaf.

Here is the parent of the caterpillars, Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus chrysippus). One was seen circulating the plant and stopping at occasions to lay eggs. I did see two isolated eggs but my camera was not suited to take picture of such tiny object.

An empty chrysalis was seen hanging beneath a leaf of the host plant.

Another butterfly seen was a common forest inhabitant, Branded Imperial (Eooxylides tharis distanti), found resting on the leaf of the Fishtail Palm. Its host plant, Smilax setosa, was abundant here.

This picture was taken from a distance as the butterfly did not allowed me to get near. No clue on the identity of this one though. [Update: Autumn Leaf (Doleschallia bisaltide)]

This one was high up on the leaf of the Fishtail Palm --- another long distance shot. It should be the Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina bolina).

I ended my round slightly after noon. This park is indeed full of wonders.

Visit of the praying mantis

Besides the cicada's visit to my home earlier this month, I had another unexpected visitor back in 8 August. This fellow stayed for 2 days. It was first located at the back of my mini fern forest (see red arrow).

Here is the full view of the uninvited guest --- an adult praying mantis with a light green shade.

Recently, I came across an article on this particular species of praying mantis, which led me to its scientific name --- Hierodula patellifera. It can be identified by the two white coxal spines at the top portion of the spiny front legs (see red arrow), which I happened to have a picture of this view.

The next day, it decided to go across to survey the Bird's Nest Fern nearby.

By evening, it started to roam around the floor of the living room. To prevent someone from stepping on it accidentally, I moved it to the Butterfly Pea vine at the balcony. The next morning, it was gone.

Creatures at Admiralty Park

This is part 2 of my Admiralty Park stroll last Saturday. I last visited the park in October.

It was a good started the moment I stepped into the park seeing this blue damselfly grabbing a prey that looked like a fly.

Tiny caterpillars like this one can be found leaves and branches of the Rangoon Creeper.They are a rather abundant this time round though you still needed to search for them due to their size. They should be moth caterpillars.

This is not a bee but a flower fly or hover fly. The flower it was attending to is from a creeper (Melothria pendula) that bear small cucumber-like fruits.

The only Golden Orb Web Spider (Nephila maculata) seen this time round although it is a rather common spider here.

There was a tiny orange-coloured spider on the same web that I suspect may be the male spider. Obviously, this picture was enlarged many times.

A lone light green caterpillar found on a leaf stalk of a Elephant's Ear plant. From its appearance, its parent is probably a Hawkmoth.

The sound from the movement on dried leaves had led me to this Common Sun Skink.

A katydid taking its position on a leaf of the Common Yellow Stem Fig tree.

This wired looking creature is actually a grasshopper called Monkey hopper.

As a grand closing of this trip, I got to see this colourful and spiky looking caterpillar on a leaf of the Ilex cymosa. I chanced upon it while I was attempting to get some good pictures of this plant. It should be the 5th instar stage of the Studded Sergeant (Athyma asura idita).

There were more creatures seen and much more photos taken which I probably can go for another post. But I think two posts from a trip are enough for now and I will keep the rest of the pictures for another time.

Butterflies at Admiralty Park

Did a round at Admiralty Park on Saturday afternoon. I expect to see butterflies and if I am lucky enough, may even be able to take a few pictures. What I did not expect was the number of butterflies that were happy to have their photo taken.

The first one that went into my collection was a Malayan Eggfly (Hypolimnas anomala anomala). It is a commonly seen butterfly at the park where its host plant (Pipturus argenteus) is abundant. I had even seen its eggs as well as the caterpillars previously.

This was another of the same butterfly with its wings closed.

The next one was a Malay Viscount (Tanaecia pelea pelea) resting on the leaf of a Simpoh Air.

The picture of this Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana javana) was taken at close range. Hence, it is much clearer than the first 3 pictures above, which were taken at quite a distance away.

Here was the same butterfly with its wings closed.

Next was this Nigger (Orsotriaena medus cinerea) posting from a fern leaf (Cyclosorus heterocarpus).

I had to followed this Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra agina) for a while before taking its one and only picture. Fortunately, it turned out well, though not perfectly well.

In all, I managed to collect the pictures of 5 butterflies. In case you are wondering what is the big deal about 5 butterflies --- all pictures were taken with a standard point-and-shoot digital camera, my usual companion at my field trip. You can try doing that and you will know what I mean.

There are more than just butterflies for this outing. Watch out for my next post.

A morning at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Last Sunday, I finally got to see the fruit of Pandanus monotheca at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR). I have been eying these pandan trees for the fruit after I seen its picture from another website.

Two types of wild pandan trees are rather prominent at BTNR because of their size. Besides the one above, there is another species which is of a much larger size.

A strange-looking caterpillar chewing on the leaf of Bat Laurel.

This is likely to be a type of fungus beetle although it was resting on the stem of a plant instead of a fungus. Fungus is a common resident of the moist forest ground. This beetle will never go hungry.

Here is another species of the beetle prowling on the forest floor. It had two humps on its back.

It took me a while to get a close-up picture of this Archduke butterfly (Lexias pardalis dirteana) that landed on the walking trail. Fortunately, no one else was using the track while I was having my photo session.

Guess what is this flower? Surprisingly, it is a type of passion flower. The more surprising part was seeing such climber in the midst of BTNR. The bright blooming pinkish flower that I saw back in July was astonishing though none was seen this time round.

These tiny orange flowers were found on one of the slender branches of a shrub with large leaves (Maschalocorymbus villosus). This was the second time that I saw the flowers but no fruit was seen so far.

The human traffic was heavy at BTNR on Sunday, especially on the main road leading to the hill top. This situation is probably not a good thing for the forest. Maybe it would be better for people to find some other place to do their exercise and leave the forest to those people who come to appreciate the beauty of nature. Anyway, just a wild wish from my end.

A short walk by the park

Did my usual weekend exploration at the nearby park yesterday evening. On the way, I passed by a Giant milkweed  with its leaves in a rather bad shape. As I suspected, it is the work of caterpillars. They should be the caterpillars of the Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus chrysippus).

Lantana can be found growing in the bushes at the peripheral of the park. This imported plant has been naturalised here.

I had managed to locate the Slender pitcher seen in October. Though I have been roaming the park for the last one year, I first discovered this pitcher plant only this October.

An interesting bug was seen holding onto the side of the leaf of Simpoh Air. It may be a type of leaf-footed bug. [Update: Dalader sp.]

Here is the side view of the bug:

As it started drizzling, I had to turn back after just 30 minutes in the walk.