The Spider Temple

The micro world never ceases to amaze, as we find facts after facts on bug behavior and patterns, with each getting more bizarre to the previous one.

The Neogea Nocticolor Spider is often known for it's intricate and fascinating patterns it weaves on it's web. Found one today, but seemed like it had not started doing it's famous magic yet! What intrigued me more... was the presence of 3 odd sacs hanging equidistant from each other above the spider. It reminded me of temples hanging lanterns at the gates.

Yet to confirm, but I've read that the Neogea female likes to decorate it's web with it's egg sacs, and have seen similar pictures like this describing them to be egg-sacs. Some joked that this was for the spider to hang clothes to dry. What's your take? :P

Note: I forgot to bring batteries for my flash this time, so most were taken without flash, some with onboard flash, aided by torchlights

#1 The Spider Temple, Neogea Nocticolor Spider

#2 Side view of the bizarre sight

#3 Never seen a white cockroach before.. albino? Just emerged from moult or coccoon? (shell in background)

#4 Creature from another planet... planet Watermelon!

#5 This is actually the pupa of a Nolid Moth, found 4 of them along the stretch that I walked today

#6 Crab spider in wait of a prey

#7 Success? No idea what it was eating though

The complete album can be viewed here.

Bitten by a Walking Trash Collector

I've seen bugs that collect junk or trash and stick them on their backs for protection or camouflage. But IMO it just gives their locations away! Today I had a chance to go up close with one such bug, a bit too close in fact. :(

I was rummaging through some leaves, trying to glimpse underneath for some interesting bugs, and found this walking bulk of trash walking towards my thumb. Looked just like a ball of trash and seemed pretty harmless, so I didn't flick it away and had a close look instead. Turned out that this fella had a really vicious face and deals a stinging bite -- it sunk it's mandibles into my thumb once it got there...

This is the larva (note that larvae is the plural of larva) of the Green Lacewing (Neuroptera Chrysopidae). Has 6 eyes on each side and extremely long piercing mandibles.

#1 The first bite sunk in, it was painful but since it was already there, I had to take a shot of it first!

#2 Side view of the bizarre creature, carrying trash many times it's size. Locally this might even be called the Karang Guni bug.. lol

#3 Another look at the face of the fierce creature

#4 Sinking in again!

#5 Checking out the hairy details of this little bugger. Carries dead leaves, twigs, and even an egg shell?

#6 After a bit of research, found that these are the eggs of the Green Lacewing. Many probably have seen these before but had no idea what they were.

Ok had enough of this guy and put him back to where it was crawling from. Many asked if I would turn into some mutant after getting bitten by this bizarre looking thing... YOU'RE WATCHING TOO MANY SUPER HERO FLICKS!! LOL. Worst thing that can happen is... I become a Karang Guni Man Superhero?

The complete album can be viewed here.

The Huntsman Spider's Babies

A post-Christmas shoot at Venus Drive with quite a number of unique subjects! We found a Huntsman Spider tending after it's nest. On closer inspection, the spiderlings had already hatched and were scrambling around the nest, indeed a sight to behold!

#1 The protective mother. Guess how many spiderlings are there in this picture?? :)

#2 Closer look, mother's favorite kid stands right in front of her

#3 Under her watchful eyes

#4 Closeup on the siblings

#5 There were even more hiding under the nest!

#6 Flying ant. Only some ants in each colony will have wings, and they venture out to mate and form new colonies. The queen would shed it's wings after settling down to start the new colony. Some or most may fail in their task.

#7 Attempting to stand tall

#8 Brown crab spider

#9 You may remember this guy from an earlier post, let's welcome back the Bird Dropping Spider!

#10 A wider view with it's gory details

#11 Top view, this one actually had yellow streaks to complete the shitty look

#12 A beautiful metallic blue beetle

#13 David had spotted this, but it flew off before we could take more shots

#14 Top view, it is generally hairy but some parts appeared to be "balding"

#15 Longhorn Beetle attempting a disco move

#16 Longhorn Beetle portrait

#17 This longhorn was very cooperative, it even allowed us to place a leaf behind to create the bright green backdrop

#18 Going closer to observe the details

#19 New passport photo for the longhorn!

#20 Here's why it is called the Longhorn Beetle

#21 A red-coloured weevil, first time spotting this species! It also flew off after we took a few shots

The complete album can be viewed here.

Merry Christmas from the Micro World!

The little ones celebrate Christmas too! Here's wishing all readers, macro and nature lovers a merry Christmas and a fruitful new year!

Click on the pic for a larger image!



Shot this Longhorn Beetle last night, will have a longer post on that soon. :)

Search for Glowing Mushrooms

Finally back to night shooting! Just a few subjects, but interestingly, we found quite a number of tiger beetles sleeping on leaves. As fast as they were in the day, these fierce little dudes were incredibly docile at night. But a more interesting discovery was a glowing mushroom. Yes just one, a bio-luminiscent mushroom that emits a soft green light when in total darkness!

#1 UFO??

#2 Nope! It is a bio-luminiscent mushroom! Glows in the dark, cool eh? This was just a tiny mushroom, about 1cm in height. Can't wait to find a mass of them to give the feel of being in Pandora. lol

#3 First pair of mating subjects found before I even reached Wallace Trail! These Stick Insects (Phasmatodea) were pretty large, so I had to shoot from about 1 metre away!

#4 Shooting from the other side, where you can see the connection between the male and the female

#5 A Katydid squeezing out from it's moult. Often see the bugs moulting at night, but this is the first time I'm shooting this.

#6 Longhorn Beetle (Cerambycidae) which flew deep into the bushes, I had to trudge deep to get this one

#7 Since I was already there, had to get a head shot!! Dimply faced, the amazing thing about insects is... every member of the same species looks almost identical. Even the position of the dimples could be exactly the same.

#8 This was the Tiger Beetle that was found resting on many leaves. All of us had a Tiger Beetle to shoot at the same time!

#9 Let's look at it's face!

#10 Previous shot wasn't close enough, adding more magnification for this one!

#11 RAWR!!! It decided to bare it's mandibles at me. Quite a sight!

#12 A stubborn weevil closes it's legs and plays dead

#13 Opened it's legs for a while, realized we're still around and went back to it's guarded mode

#14 Side view of the weevil

#15 Final shot of a turquoise coloured Tiger Beetle! Was hanging upside down, so I rotated it slightly

The complete album can be viewed here.