Tiomanese's Blog

Mangrove Pit Viper vs. Caterpillar

2009-04-01T01:15:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (30 March 2009)night, went to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve for a night survey on Spiders. Because of raining, we were taking shelter at the Main Hide. Many of terrestrial animals "followed" us to take a shelter, including a mangrove pit viper and few caterpillars. One of the caterpillar was dropping on the back of the snake from the wooden wall when I was shooting the Pit Viper, and caused the snake to react badly. I was shock when I saw this through the camera and the snake, all of a sudden, shaking his head strongly and that cause me almost to drop my camera... Ha!ha! I retreated myself in a safer distance and continue to record this interesting interaction. Eventually, the caterpillar managed to stay on the Pit Viper for about 10 minutes and them moved herself away peacefully.

Quite danger indeed. Should try to keep a safer distance...but somehow too greedy to get a closeup. According to the guidebook "the Amphibians & Reptiles of Singapore", "It (Mangrove Pit Viper) is usually rather bad tempered and will not hesitate to strike if approached too closely". I will think twice next time for such a "good opportunity"!

1. NK D200, FL 90mm, 1.4xTC, 1/60sec-F/25, Manual, First Curtain flashes at -2.3ev, and -2.0ev, handheld, with ground support, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, 30 Mar 2009;

2. F/11, flashes at o, and -1.7;

3. F/18, flashes at -1.3ev, and -1.0ev;

4. F/16, both flashes at -0.3ev.

Shieldbugs-from Nymph to sub-adult

2008-10-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Thank Tony for spotting and sharing this particular family of bugs, to Allan for sharing this STARBUG with me to record the molting process. We were shooting the same individual and I was shooting from the side.

1. The shield bug family. The smaller one looks very different from the rest is the nymph. The leaf is quite high up and I have difficulty to place my remote flash properly, thus got undesirable shadow. We evidenced the molting process of the nymph to sub-adult, which is recorded in the previous images. It only took about 20 minute to finish the whole process. The color of the newly emerged sub-adult is light orange, and will getting darker and darker later.

FL 180mm, 1/15sec-F/22, Manual, ISO 400, fill flash, FEC -1.3 (master) & -1.7 ev (remote); tripod, MLU, CCK, 4 Oct 2008.

2- Shield Bug, Adult; FL 180mm, 1/13sec-F/22, Manual, ISO 400, fill flash, FEC -1.3 (master) & -1.7 ev (remote); tripod, MLU, CCK, Singapore, 4 Oct 2008.

3. Moult 1; FL 180mm, 1/13sec-F/22, Manual, ISO 400, fill flash, FEC -1.3 (master) & -1.7 ev (remote); tripod, MLU, CCK, Singapore, 4 Oct 2008.

4. Moult 2, FL 180mm, 1/13sec-F/22, Manual, ISO 400, fill flash, FEC -1.3 (master) & -1.7 ev (remote); tripod, MLU, CCK, Singapore, 4 Oct 2008.

5. Moult 3; FL 180mm, 1/13sec-F/22, Manual, ISO 400, fill flash, FEC -1.3 (master) & -1.7 ev (remote); tripod, MLU, CCK, Singapore, 4 Oct 2008.

6: Moult 4; FL 180mm, 1/13sec-F/22, Manual, ISO 400, fill flash, FEC -1.3 (master) & -1.7 ev (remote); tripod, MLU, CCK, Singapore, 4 Oct 2008.

7: Out eventually! FL 180mm, 1/5sec-F/22, Manual, ISO 400, fill flash, FEC -1.3 (master) & -1.7 ev (remote); tripod, MLU, CCK, Singapore, 4 Oct 2008.

We observed several individuals and all have the same behaviour of turning themselves 180 degree after separated from the original shell (molt), then moved up to pose side by side with the molt. Got no idea of why they got such behavior!?

How many colour forms of Stinkbug (Pycanum sp) nymphs are there?

2008-07-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

Few weeks ago (31 May 2008), I went to Eco-lake at Singapore Botanic Garden to have a macro outing with my photographic friends. The macro subjects there were not so many and not so favorable for macro shooting. So many of my friends decided to move to Holland Woods for a better luck. However, shortly after they left, myself, together with Michael, Tony, Darren and Margret were all amazed by these groups of stinkbugs, both adults and nymphs. The nymphs were exactly the some body shape, but surprisingly with totally different colour forms, i.e. red, yellow and green! We assume that all should be belonging to the same species as there were only one species of adult Stinkbug (Pycanum sp) could be found on the spot. The red color form is quite common, but the other two are all new to us. Just wondering are there any more colour forms out in the field and are there any adaptation significance for having such diverse colour forms for the nymphs? This discovery again reminds us that we know so little about the little creatures right at our backyard....

I have posted these photos in my Flickr account and many of my Flickr friends like these nymph photos very much. Some of them described these nymphs look like a piece of cutting fruit, and I do agree with that. They look so different from the adult and are really really cute. I like particularly the two showing the interaction between the yellow and the red nymphs very much...simply they look so lovely and so interesting!! :)

1. The adult: FL 180mm, 1/10sec-F/18, ISO 640, MLU, Manual, EC: -0.3 ev, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67.

2. Get in Touch: FL 180mm, 1/25sec-F/22, ISO 400, MLU, Manual, EC: +1.0 ev, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67.

3. Red and Yellow Nymphs: FL 180mm, 1/50sec-F/16, ISO 400, MLU, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67.

4. Green Nymph of Pycanum sp, dorsal view: FL 180mm, 1/30sec-F/22, ISO 400, MLU, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67.

5. Green Nymph of Pycanum sp, lateral view: FL 180mm, 1/30sec-F/22, ISO 400, MLU, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67.

6. Mother and child: FL 180mm, 1/15sec-F/22, ISO 400, MLU, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67.

Forest Damselfly (Vestalis amethystina)

2008-07-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

This damselfly is living inside the forest. I spent quite some time to shoot it. It's very sensitive to light. Once the flash fire, it would just jumping up and fly away, a very unusual behavior in Damselfly. So I have to fully depend on ambient light. However, I noticed that direct sunlight will also obviously affect its nature colour. Luckily at this moment, it was perch on an undergrowth leaf that just nice to be lightened up by some gentle sunlight from nearby penetrating through the forest... Compared these two photos you will find the blue wing only occur on the first one as a result of iridescence.

FL 180mm, 1/4sec-F/13, ISO 640, MLU, Manual, no flash, tripod, Chestnut Path, Singapore, 28 June 2008.

FL 180mm, 1/2.5sec-F/13, ISO 640, Manual, no flash, tripod, Chestnut Path, Singapore, 28 June 2008.

Singapore Asceles, a locally endemic subspecies of stick insect from Upper Peirce

2008-06-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Sharing images of a stick insect (Asceles Tanarata singapura) taken during Sunday (15 June 2008) outing at Upper Peirce. I spent about two hours to photograph it as it is quite collaborative though occasionally moved a little bit or changed its position, but remained on the same leaf. Due to its elongated and very slender appearance, I found myself having a hard time with the compositions. The movement of the subject caused by morning breeze also gave me some problems. But eventually, I managed to get some images with satisfaction. The species was described by the local stick insect expect Dr. Francis Seow-Choen and his overseas counterpart Paul Brock as Asceles singapura on 1999, based on material from Singapore and southern Johor. Upper Peirce Reservoir was chosen as type locality as specimens there were used for species description. But one year later, Dr. Seow-Choen believed that our local species does not appear to be "specifically" different from another species A. tanarata which is found at Tanarata of Peninsular Malaysia, but displays some minor differences which he regarded as geographical variations, and thus, changed the the local species to be a subspecies of Asceles tanarata.

Interestingly, according to their records, the food plants of this subspecies are three species of Macaranga (M. conifera, M. gigantea and M. triloba), while my specimen was tightly holding to a hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta). This hairy clidemia has been listed as food plant for some other species of Asceles.

1. FL 180mm, 1/15sec-F/11, manual, ISO 640,tripod, MLU, fill flash at -2.67;

2. FL 180mm, 1/60sec-F/10, manual, ISO 640,tripod, MLU, fill flash at -2.67;

3. FL 180mm, 2x TC, 1/15sec-F/18, manual, ISO 640,tripod, MLU, fill flash at -2.67;

4. FL 180mm, 2x TC, 1/2sec-F/18, manual, ISO 640,tripod, MLU, fill flash at -2.67;

5. FL 180mm, 2x TC, 1/3sec-F/20, manual, ISO 640,tripod, MLU, fill flash at -2.67

References
Brock, P. D., 1999. Stick and leaf insects of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Malasian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur, pp. 1-222.

Seow-Choen, F., 1997. A guide to the stick leaf insects of Singapore. Singapore Science Centre, Singapore, pp. 1-160.

Seow-Choen, F., 2000. An illustratedguide to the stick and leaf insects of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, pp. 1-173.

Seow-Choen, F., 2005. A Pocket Guide, Phasmids of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, pp. 1-120.

Making Love: Right Time or Wrong Time-Crab Spider Story

2008-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Joined with a group of Macro buddies to Holland Woods, Singapore last Saturday, and observed some interesting happenings of the crab spiders (Thomisus sp)...

1. The female crab spider was jumping into the mid air to catch the bee when I saw her. She grabbed the bee tightly with a single thread of silk connecting to the flower. The bee was struggling, trying to escape from the predator. But..Nowhere!! It just need a few seconds for the female crab spider to paralyze the bee...(FL 180mm, 1/40sec-F/18, ISO 400, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67ec.)

2. The spider brought back the bee to the flower where she was hiding of before. Don't know how will she handle the prey...(FL 180mm, 1/2sec-F/25, ISO 400, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67ec.)

3. Then I saw a male crab spider (the tiny brown color one) approaching to the female from behind. Thought that he was coming to help...(FL 180mm, 1/3sec-F/25, ISO 400, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67ec.)

4. When the male spider was climbing onto the female, the female was using her hind legs to kick him off several times. But as she have to hold the prey tightly at the same time, the male managed to climb up...and stick to that position for few minutes..Then just at this moment I realized that the male was most probably mating with the female. My God!!! (FL 180mm, 1/3sec-F/25, ISO 400, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67ec.)

5. The male spider left the female after he has achieved what he want, moved to a leaf above the flower to hind himself. And the female was carrying the bee moving around the flower. Eventually, she brought the bee to hind underneath another leaf at lower part of the plant, disappearing from my view... (FL 180mm, 1/3sec-F/22, ISO 400, Manual, Tripod, fill flash at -1.67ec.)

Just wondering if I interpret the observation correctly? Will the male get a piece of the prey later on?! Does he do the right thing to mate her at that point of time (assuming that my speculation is correct)? What do you think?? :P

Biodiversity Survey, Western Singapore, 14 August 2007

2007-10-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Western Catchment is the area at the western part of Singapore. It's one of our major terestrial sites for biodiversity survey. We did a bird count at the early moning, survey dragonfly and spider at afternoon, almost finished at 8pm. Here posted are some photos taken by my Nikon camera and the 70-300 zoom lens.

This was taken after a drizzle rain at the early morning.

Trithemis pallidinervis, an uncommon species dragonfly in Singapore

Oxyopes birmaniscus, a common lnyx spider.

Jumping spider Phintella vittata, a common species.

Crab spider, Boliscus tuberculata, not so easy to find in Singapore

The take off of the Purple heron, Ardea purpurea.

Daving Trip to Pulau Tioman, 9-12 August 2007

2007-10-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

9 August 2007

Went with my diving friends The Hardy_tadpole Family to Pulau Tioman for diving. Many of my friends have their family going along...

We left Singapore at about 7:30am, arrived Mursing at 10:30am. The diving boat came a bit late to pick us, so we left Mursing for our first diving site at 12:30pm.

Got to know some more diving friends..

Lester, a colleague of Lloyd, who is also a Diving Instructor.

Ah Bob, another dive instructor of Lloyd's friends, and his girlfriend

We have our first dive at a reef located at the middle distance between Pulau Tioman and Mursing. The water is very clear, and there were quite a number of fishes there. Other than that, there are not much can be remenbered. Arrived Kampung Genting at about 5pm and after a short rest, four of us went to conduct a night dive to Pulau Reggis. I was diving with Lloyd and we were moving very slowly to find quite a number of sleeping fishes, shrimps and crabs...

10 August 2007

At breakfast, chidren were enjoying their food before we move to our diving site, Pulau Chebeh, a little island quite far away (aout one hour boat ridde) from Tioman

After the dive, we move to Pulau Tulai for another dive and then have a rest. Here, all those non-divers were happily snorkelling or went to the sandy beach play around with water and sand...

The leader of the trip, Lloyd, our diving instructor

Ah Goh and his son...

Ah Goh's daughter happily enjoy her first swimming at the sea...

Hobin'son was so happy to find a shell. Don't know where he got it...

Erin's daught found herself well recobered from a flu and enjoy the water very much...

At evening, we move to Pulau Soyak to do have the third dive.

Dinner was quite enjoyable, and many of them were doing nothings but relaxing by watching TV and chatting...

Lloyd and Edmond watching TV...

"I am spiderman"--Gigi, the spiderboy.

11 August 2007

We went to the famous diving site Tiger Reef, which is a deep water site in pulau Tioman. Current here is always very strong and only experiened diver can fully enjoy it. Because the current is too strong at the morning, so we move a the little island just next to it, Pulau Labas for the first dive. This is rather nice diving site. I took quite a number of fishes, includin a moray eel, and a tiger cowry.

At the dive interval, while the other resting for the next dive, I was busily shooting birds, which were so abundance there. Those bird photos are
really nice as beyond my own's target during this trip. I was just to test the lenses and the camera and then the result come out quite unexpected! Like the
black-naped tern, when I took it, I didn't realize that it was biting a fish with it's beak.

Christmas Frigatebird

The black-naped tern with its prey...

Little tern

When we conducted our second dive for the Tiger reef, I was very unlucky as the descending rope that I was holding got cut by the propeller of our boat :( Then I got no choice but have to give up, as many of other divers have already descended. I am so eager to dive this site as I have dived it before but in limited time. Sigh...

At afterroom, we moved to Pulau Tomok to have another dive. Before the dive, I saw a group of black-naped tern happily enjoyed their dinner there...

All of us went back to the Island Reef Resort after this dive, but only Ah Bob and myself went out again for the night dive at Genting Jetty. On our way back, I saw this Pacific swallow sittingat the cable and grab this opportunity to closely shot it...

Both Ah Bob and myself are all enjoy night very much and we have been dive buddy for night dive before. We moved very very slowly to find a lot of crustaceans, seashell and many others which are very offen to be neglected by other divers...

Dinner was BBQ, and followed by a series of fun on drink and game...

Several people were virtually drunk...

Here all the divers and the families for the trip

12 August 2007

We left at about 9:30 as the boat need to travel 4 hours to reach Mursing. At Mursing, I took Ah Lin's car back to Singapore...

It's a so enjoyable diving trip...

Terrestrial recce, Pulau Semakau, Singapore, 4th August 2007

2007-08-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

Much has been known for Semakau's intertidal fauna and flora through the joint efforts by various parties, which concern about the biodiversity of the landfill island in the recent years, species of the terrestrial component are rarely reported. Species list of forest plants and birds have been listed, while that of invertebrates and other mammals almost remains unknown. As an attempt to fill this gap, Hung Kei, Hung Bun and myself form a volunteer survey team to recce the site, and to conduct a "quick and dirty" first hand data collection.

To access coral reef beach of the island, everyone has to pass a forest trail. For those have been there, the density and the strength of mosquito bite are surely the unforgetable experiences. In many a time, people will just covered themselves with whatever means, or/and running through it so as to get less bites. But for us, we are aiming to survey this place, back and forth slowly looking for various kinds of insect and spiders. Those mosquitoes were happily enjoying their unexpected food source.

The recce trip is rewarded quite well with a list of of spider species, and some of insects which have been spotted....

Species list of spiders

Araneidae
1.Argiope cf perforata
2.Cyrtophora unicolor
Tetragnathidae
3.Tylorida striata
Theriidae
4.Achaearanea mundula
5.Achaearanea t-notata
6. Theridon sp (green)
Scytodidae
7.Scytodes fusca
Oxyopidae
8.Oxyopes birmanicus
9.Tapponia sp
Lycosidae
10.Pardosa sp
Salticidae
11.Epeus flavobilineatus
12.Thiania bhamoensis
13.Thorelliola ensifera
14.Cocalus murinus
15.Myrmarachne maxillosa
16.?Thianitara sp
17. sp1 (dog-faced jumper)
18. sp2 (long-tailed jumper)
Desidae
19.Desis cf martensi
Clubionidae
20.Clubiona sp1
21.Clubiona sp2 (elongated abdomen)
22.Clubiona sp3 (rounded abdomen, green)
Thomisidae
23.Thomisus sp
24.Tmarus pulchripes
25.Amyciaea lineatipes
Heteropodidae
26.Thelccticopis sp

List of Insects

Grasshopper
Cricket
Beetle
Leave beetle
Paired beetles
Ladybird
Black fly
Red-eyed fly
Micropezid fly
Weaver ants
Twig wilters
Robberflies
Leaf beetle
Common Grass Yellow Butterfly
Two species of Long legged fly
Two small moths
Squash bug and nymph
Praying mantis
Plataspid bug

Others

Snail
Gecko

References

Koh, K. H. 1989. A guide to common Singapore Spiders. Singapore Science Centre, Singapore, pp 1-160.

Murphy, F. & J. Murphy, 2000. An introduction to the spiders of South East Asia, with notes on all the genera. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, pp 1-625, plates. 1-32.

Sime Road, Central Catchment Nature Reserve, Singapore 15th July 2007

2007-07-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

This is the second time that I joined Kim Seng for the bird census. On 25th March this year, during the Annual Bird Census, I did learn a lot from him by coming along for the 3 hour walk. This year I even learnt more as we were lucky enough to sight a very good spot which is created by several naturally fallen trees. During about 20 minute stop there, we found more than 10 species of forest birds actively moving around and singing, including some that I have never seen before, namely the Asian Fairy-Bluebird, Red-Crowed Barbet, Chestnut-Bellied Malkoha and Red-Eyed Bulbul, etc. Kim Seng explained to me and Paul, the other assistant for the census, the various songs and their responsible singers. It's really a very nice experience that you hear a bird song and see the bird at the same time! In total, we encountered 35 species, with 184 individuals of birds. There are two black-naped oriole and several Yellow-vented Bulbul there also, which according to Kim Seng, is not a good sign for the habitat. Both species are normally found at open country area.

During the census, we came across a Blue Malayan Coral Snake. It was slowly moving from one side of the trail to the other. That gave me a sufficent time to take photos for it. But as it is so famous for its venomous bite, I dare not to go too close to it for a closeup. We also saw quite a number of dragonfly and damselfly species. So after the census, I spend another 2 hours walked again along the same trail to survey the dragonfly and damselfly. I tried to take photography records for most of the species. But several species were in limited number and located at some distance beyond my camera's reach. A painted bronzeback snake and a comon Sun Skink were also recorded. The following list is based on direct observation and photographs consulted with the guidebooks by Orr (2003, 2005).

Odonata species list for the day

1. Ceriagrion cerinorubellum (Brauer, 1865), common

2. Vestalis amoena (Hagen, 1853), common

3. Aciosoma panorpoides Rambur, 1842, common

4. Ictinogomphus decoratus melaenops (Selys, 1858), common

5. Neurothemis fluctuans (Fabricius, 1793), common

6. Orchithemis pulcherrima Brauer, 1878, blue morph, common

7. Brachydiplax chalybea Brauer, 1868, common

8. Orthetrum sabina (Drury, 1773), common

9. Orthetrum chrysis (Selys, 1891) male, commom

10. Rhyothemis phyllis (Sulzer, 1776), common

11. Rhyothemis triangularis Kirby, 1889, uncommon

12. Rhyothemis cf obsolescens Kirby, 1889, uncommon

13. Trithemis aurora (Burmeister, 1839), common

14. Tyriobapta torrida Kirby, 1889, common

Orchithemis pulcherrima, orange form

Orchithemis pulcherrima, dark form

Acisoma panorpoide, male

Tyriobapta torrida

Orchithemis pruinans

Vestalis amoena

References

Lim, K. K P & F. L. K. Lim, 1992. A guide to the amphibians and reptiles of Singapore. Singapore Science Centre, Singapore, pp1-160.

Lim, K. S. & Gardner, D. C., 1997. Bird, an Illustrated field guide to the birds of Singapore. Sun Tree Publishing, Singapore, pp 1-210.

Orr, A. G., 2005. Dragonflies of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kata Kinabalu, pp. 1-125.

Orr, A. G., 2003. A guide to the dragonflies of Borneo, their identification and biology. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, pp. 1-195.

Cheong, L. F., Checklist of Odonata in Singapore. (unpublished)

Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin, Singapore 7th July 2007

2007-07-08T01:34:00.000-07:00

The Chek Jawa Wetland was officially launched this morning. From now on, all visitors can come to visit Chek Jawa from 8am to 6pm, seven days a week, on their own. It's a raining day, and the launch have to be started at 8:30am due to the restricted tidal timing, as there will be a guided natural walk after the launch. Still, there was a large number of people, include government officers, volunteers and public visitors turn up. Singaporean are getting more and more enthusiastic and concern of the conservation of their nature and biodiversity. As to promote the visit of Chek Jawa Wetland, A 1.1 km boardwalk has been built along the coast. A gallery was set up on the previous British Colony House No.1 in Pulau Ubin to dispaly the diversity of life in Chek Jawa.

Moving along the boardwalk, visitors will be able to observe the variety of creatures underneath or next to it.
Compare to directly walking into the wet, you may feel that you are not so close to those marine creature. But on the other hand, you will be able to see these animals' behaviour in their nature way from such a boardwalk.

Start from the gallery, along the boardwalk, you will be able to see all kind of habitats that Chek Jawa provides. The rocky shore at the first half of the boardwalk, is probably the longest continue rocky habitat in Singapore.

Outside the boardwalk is an extensive sandy habitats, which holds a large patch of seagrass and its inhabitants. At the middle of the board walk, there is a floating board walk (like a pontoon) extending toward the sand bar. It will bring the visitor down a bit when the tide is lower, and hence provided a better view for the intertidal fauna and flora . The second half of the boardwalk is dominated by mangrove habitats. Here, mangrove fauna is not so rich as compared to Sungei Buloh and many of other mangrove sites in Singapore. But still, we were able to see and hear several species of birds during the one hour walk, namely straw-headed bulbul, common tailorbird, ashy tailorbird, common Iora, olive-backed sunbird, pied fantail and oriental magpie-robin. We even saw a large size of banded kraits (snake) moving slowly at the back mangrove. According to Lim and Lim (1992), "The kraits have seldom been encourtered in Singapore". Between the sand bar and mangrove, there is a sanddy-mudflat. Here, numerous fiddle crabs (Uca sp), sand bubbler crab (Scopimera sp) include several different species moving, waving, and fighting (or playing). Many individuals of a small mud-skipper caught visitor's eyes as they display a bizarre behavior. The fish keeps continuously jumping up and down to a distance about twice of its body length in a vertical position. No sure what they were doing, probably some kind of territorial display.
After the walk, I followed the local mangrove expert, Dr. Jean Yong and his students, together with Ali from Pulau Ubin station to other mangrove areas in Pulau Ubin to continue our adventure. One of locally endangered species of mangrove tree, currently has only very limited individuals in Singapore, and half of them are growing in the Pulau Ubin. Jean wanted to check the current situation of those trees. We penetrated slowly into a dense back mangrove forest, back and forth several times.

We could not located our target plants eventually as Jean and Ali did not remember well the exact location. So we may come another day to search it again. All of us end up very dirty and exhausted. I saw this passion fruit when we were searching in the forest. We also came across a young wild boar in distance.

We then have our late lunch at about 2:30pm. And during the lunch, while having the fruit, I saw a tiny spider moving on the surface of a ranbutan...

References

Lim, K. K P & F. L. K. Lim, 1992. A guide to the amphibians and reptiles of Singapore. Singapore Science Centre, Singapore, pp1-160.

Lim, K. S. & D. Gardner, 1990. Birds, an illustrated field guide to the birds of Singapore. Suntree, Singapore, pp 1-210.

Lorong Halus, Singapore, 4th July 2007

2007-07-05T00:59:00.000-07:00

A visit to the Lorong Halus Pond and its vicinity at about 9am to 1pm...

My colleagues and I passed through Pasi Ris Farmway and stop at a canal just next to Loyang Agrotechnology Park. There were about 18 species of bird during an hour observation and count. I only manage to take photo for this big bird,the purpl heron, which is quite common there.

Before entering the small gate of the pone area, I came across this changeable lizard who was just doing his daily sun bathing.

This pond is famous for it inhabitant, Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), an interesting species of native rare duck-shaped bird. Scanning through the pond surface with the binocular, we hardly can see the trace of little grebe. However, several Pacific swallows were happily playing on the top of an iron rod at the middle of the pond.

Later through the binocular, we saw one pair of little grebe among the vegetation along the edge at the other side of the pond. So I walked along the edge of the pond, slowly moving toward them. I was sucessfully close enough to see two of them in details. But when I attempted to a photo, both were suddenly disappeared from my signt...

The little grebes are actually very shy bird, trying to keep a distance long enough from me by diving away underwater and surfacing in distance several minutes later.

There are quite a number of dragonflies and damselflies flying and perching among the grass at the edge of the pond.

Dragonfly Diplacodes trivialis

Damselflies are small in size but with a large number...

Damselfly Ischnura senegalensis, male

Damselfly Ischnura senegalensis, female

Then I saw a female fiercely grabed a male and the reaction of the male was like helpless for escaping away or doing any other things...

Courship prior to copulation or fighting?

The pair were flying away before I can get more clues for what they are doing.

Later, I saw several mating pairs of damselflies flying and perching...

Pair in the wheel, with male on top

According to Orr (2003), the mating process was normally leading by male who uses its anal appendages to grab the head or prothorax of the female. So at the end I still don't know what were happening to the prvious "fighting" pair.

References

Lim, K. S. & Gardner, D. C., 1997. Bird, an Illustrated field guide to the birds of Singapore. Sun Tree Publishing, Singapore, pp 1-210.

Orr, A. G., 2005. Dragonflies of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kata Kinabalu, pp. 1-125.

Orr, A. G., 2003. A guide to the dragonflies of Borneo, their identification and biology. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, pp. 1-195.