The Flying Saucer At Sunset

Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds with a smooth layered appearance that form in the troposphere, usually above mountain ranges. One was spotted in Singapore recently...

Eyes Of 30,000 Honeycombs

With 30,000 individual facets, dragonflies have the most number of facets among insects. Each facet, or ommatidia, creates its own image, and the dragonfly brain has eight pairs of descending visual neurons to compile those thousands of images into one picture...

A Kaleidoscope Of Colours, Shapes And Patterns

Spectacular and innovative in design, the Flower Dome replicates the cool-dry climate of Mediterranean regions like South Africa, California and parts of Spain and Italy. Home to a collection of plants from deserts all over the world, it showcases the adaptations of plants to arid environments...

Lightning Strikes, Not Once, But Many Times

Unlike light, lightning does not travel in a straight line. Instead, it has many branches. These other branches flashed at the same time as the main strike. The branches are actually the step leaders that were connected to the leader that made it to its target...

Are You My Dinner Tonight?

A T-Rex has 24-26 teeth on its upper jaw and 24 more on its lower jaw. Juveniles have small, sharp blade-shaped teeth to cut flesh, whereas adults have huge, blunt, rounded teeth for crushing bones. Is the T-Rex a bone-crushing scavenger?

The Hill Of The Golden Ants

8:20 AM  , ,  

Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West
North, Singapore
August 2012 
Cloudy

Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West seemed to have a huge number of golden ants. Here are a few of the more photogenic ones...

 

Polyrhachis Illaudata (Golden Ant) is a species of large ant found in Sri Lanka and India, and extending through Southeast Asia to the Philippines. The colonies have a single queen and nest within wood. Fascinatingly, this species uses its larvae to spin the nest. Note the spiny protrusion on metasoma (abdomen).



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Half The Bloodsucker That It Was

7:32 AM  , ,  

Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West
North, Singapore
August 2012
Cloudy

Calotes Versicolor (Changeable Lizard / Bloodsucker Lizard / Crested Tree Lizard / Garden Fence Lizard / Oriental Garden Lizard) are usually a dull brown, grey or olive with speckles or bands, but can can be seen in other colours such as bright green. These colour changes may reflect their moods.

Merlion Wayfarer spotted this one along the staircase near Mayflower Primary School. It was basking in the sun in mid-morning. A male, it was in the midst of a colour change in preparation for the breeding season. A fascinating example. It can be seen that colour change happens not sporadically, but from head onwards to the tail. Its throat is also turning black...

During the breeding season, the male's head and shoulders turns bright orange to crimson and his throat black. Males also turn red-headed after a successful battle with rivals. Thus their other gruesome name of "Bloodsucker Lizard". But they don't actually suck anybody's blood! Both males and females have a crest from the head to nearly the tail, hence their other common name "Crested Tree Lizard".

 
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