Walk in the Park

It has been over a year since I last posted something on my blog. The park that I often visit over weekends for my nature photography plus exploration had completed a partial upgrading of facilities in the last one year. Judging from the varieties of little creatures that I managed to find during this walk on 8 June, the impact of the upgrading to the surrounding nature seemed to be quite minimum.

The first creature spotted was a ant-mimicking jumping spider (Myrmarachne maxillosa). Without close examination, one would have easily mistaken it to be an ant.

The next creature was a very tiny yellow ladybird beetle (Illeis koebelei). The 2 prominent dark spots at its head region are not the eyes. The real eyes are smaller and located at the front end of the head region.

Forest cockroach (Pseudophoraspis nebulosa) is rather common around the area. It usually rest in the day. This time round, I managed to snap a partial view of the underside of its body and head region. Its other common name is Dried Leaf Cockroach.

Though the weather was rather dry, mushrooms were still available. These mini-sticks with white tips are actually mushrooms (or fungi). They were found growing on a fallen tree trunk. The second picture below showed a close-up view of this stick mushroom.

These are the more common mushrooms with a cap and a stalk below. The second picture below showed the underside of the one of the mushrooms.

There were quite a numbers of these grasshopper nymphs among the leaves of different plants.

The rather common giant shield bug nymphs (Pycanum rubens) gathering on the underside of a leaf of its hostplant, the Simpoh Air shrub (Dillenia suffruticosa).

Seven bug eggs arranged in a single row were found on the leaflet of a fern. It might be from the Leaf-footed Bug (Acanthocephala sp.) which is a common bug in this park.

Two juvenile praying mantis were spotted along the way. Both were relatively small. One was black in colour and looked like an ant while the other one was green in colour.

The Painted Jezebel (Delias hyparete metarete) was one of the 2 butterflies that I managed to take some decent pictures. The other one was Tawny Coster (Acraea violae).

A rather unusual find was this caterpillar standing still under the hot sun on a leaf of a young mango plant. Judging from the feature of its head region, it should be the caterpillar of the Blue Nawab (Polyura schreiber tisamenus). The recorded hostplants of this butterfly are Adenanthera pavonina (Red Saga), Chorisia speciosa (Silk Floss Tree), Nephelium lappaceum (Rambutan). As it was not feeding, I was not certain whether mango tree is one of its hostplant.

At a first glance, there was nothing unusual about this little creature on a young leaf. I had thought that it was a spider. But, after taking 2 shots, the "spider" remained undisturbed which was unusual.

After taking a closer look, it was not a spider but a strange-looking beetle with a narrow neck region. It was actually responsible for the cuts on the leaf.

Yes! I had finally found a giraffe weevil or long-necked beetle (Paracycnotrachelus sp.). When I first seen this beetle at Kurt's Blog, I was fascinated about this long-necked insect. The one that I saw was a female since its male counterpart has a much longer neck. The purpose for cutting up the leaf is to build a nest. I did not wait till it completed its nest-building work as I suspected that it was going to take quite a while.

There were more creatures seen with their pictures taken. The ones shown here were the more interesting lots.