101219 Lower Peirce Costus Trail

The usual Casurina entrance was closed for maintenance so we entered by the Jacaranda entrance. We took 3 hours just to cover the Costus trail and it was time to turn back when we reached the Bamboo/Oncospermum junction. We saw many bugs with some exciting finds including strange leafhoppers and crickets and fascinating caterpillars. It's been too long since my last nocturnal nature trip.

Some of the first insects spotted were crickets. Robin has compiled some Orthoptera facts in a very informative post at his blog. We'll never look at crickets and grasshoppers the same way again.


Probably a Nisitrus vittatus nymph.


Chun Fong spotted this cricket taking a sip from a water droplet. It is in a distinctive one feeler forward one backward configuration. Possibly Larnaca sp.?


Cricket nymph.

The most exciting orthopteran would have to be this strange fellow:

Photo by Chun Fong. Very flighty and I didn't manage to change lens in time to get a shot of it. Terribly in need of some ID too. It has also been spotted by Jac at upper Seletar and approximately IDed to be from the Meconematinae subfamily.


Fascinating caterpillar spotted by Chun Fong.


Another colorful caterpillar.


Mm, gross kissy kissy "lips".


Scarabs have distinguishing clubbed lamellate antennae.


Weevil.


Tiny click beetle. 5 mm long.


Longhorn beetle chilling out.


House centipede. Scary forcipules.




There were many harvestmen (Opiliones) crawling about the forest floor and vegetation.


Stick insect. Necroscia (affinis)?


Another stick insect. Pylaemenes mitratus?


Chun Fong spotted this really weird looking hemipteran hopper under a leaf.


This hopper nymph was crawling on the handrail.


Fungused spider. Looks like Hersiliidae.


Hersiliidae.


ID of this spider still unknown. Some sort of sparassid?


Spiderlings under a leaf. Their parent was nearby but it seemed more inclined to save itself by hiding than to defend its young.


This pholcid was carrying eggs that seem quite advanced with spiderling features quite apparent.


Possibly Heteropoda venatoria. Didn't get a chance to walk around it to see the face.


Hairy sparassid. Interesting camouflage technique.


The giant forest ants (Camponotus gigas) were very active on the boardwalk.


Rather scary mandibles and this one is only a minor worker. Chun Fong has a shot of a major worker next to a minor.


Some were carrying grubs.


Others carrying carcasses of their own kind. Were they fighting or was it in the process of disposing of a body carrying cordyceps?


Chun Fong spotted these very tiny cases. Each was about 1 mm long.


Wasp with a very long ovipositor. I'm wildly guessing its some sort of parasitic wasp that needs a long ovipositor to deposit its eggs on grubs in hard to reach places like figs or galls.


See also Chun Fong's blog on this trip.