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?

Showing posts with label Flies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flies. Show all posts

Central Catchment Area - Termites vs Ants

1:45 PM  , , , , , , , , ,  

Central Catchment Nature Reserve
North, Singapore
August 2013

It was one of the cooler days out there when termites and ants abound in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

Both ants and termites live in colonies or nests where one or relatively few individuals reproduce while non-reproductive individuals cooperate to care for brood, maintain the nest, and defend the colony. These features - reproductive division of labor (only the queens lay eggs), overlapping generations (you have all ages in the nest), and cooperative brood care (all individuals care for the young, not just the queens) - are hallmarks of eusociality, a condition achieved in relatively few insects. 

These are termites. They have straight antennae that appear like a string of tiny beads. In termites the body segments are much more broadly attached.


And these are ants. They have elbowed antennae, where the first segment is much longer than the segments that follow. Ants also have a characteristically constricted "waist" while termites do not.

Busy ants swarming around...

 Ants on a tightrope and ants with food...

A spiny ant with spikes from its metasoma (abdomen)...

The most obvious difference is that termites usually avoid light, and are usually visible only before noon when the sun is still not too hot.

A worker ant balancing itself on a stalk with a dew-dropped fruit..

Elimination - The best way to get rid of termites, which probably explains why the NParks contractor was hacking this bit of termite-trailed wooden boardwalk out...

Some other interesting finds - a red-eyed fly, a slim wasp and a limping long-tailed macaque...

A tree stands tall where scores of dragonflies reside... 

An orb-weaver advances on a fly entwined in its web and injects its fangs into its struggling prey...

Nearby, a St Andrew's Cross (Argiope) and an orb weaver lay in wait...
 

 A pair of adorable Treehoppers with their distinctive spikes and beady eyes...
 

That's a pretty flower? But wait...

See that little dot on one of its petals?

It's a curious little spider - a female Phintella vittata (Banded Phintella) jumper...

On another leaf, a male Phintella versicolor (Multi-Coloured Phintella) lands on its waxy surface...

A Bronchocela cristatella (Crested Green Lizard) peeks cautiously from a bush...
(See how flexible its legs are?)

Feeling safer, it wanders out...

A very attractive little one with its pale blue markings and orange eyes... 
   
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Megabugs Return! - Facing The Super-Sized

10:14 PM  , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  

Science Centre Singapore 
Jurong East, Singapore
June 2013


The day that Merlion Wayfarer looked forward to has finally arrived. (See "Marvel At The Small Things In Life".) On a warm weekend afternoon, she stepped into the Science Centre and found her way to the Annexe.

Pausing at the entrance to MegaBugs Returns!, she took a deep breath. What will she expect to find?


In she goes into the Warp Tunnel...

And emerges the size of a 20-cent coin where the world of bugs is revealed to her...

Curious ants swarmed around her, feelers twitching - some were milling around bits of biscuits and donuts left behind by some careless humans, others were protecting their nests...

Mere steps away stood a gigantic Rhinoceros Beetle - its single horn glinting menacingly in the light. Although it usually uses this horn when fighting other males, Merlion Wayfarer is not taking her chances with this one!

What's that smell? It's actually coming from these beetles which have rolled some feces into a ball! These balls are used as a food source or breeding chambers...

Hey look! Why is that dragonfly moving in this weird way?

Merlion Wayfarer learnt that like all insects, dragonflies are technically ectotherms. That does not mean that they are at the mercy of Mother Nature to keep them warm or cool. Dragonflies that patrol (fly back and forth, versus those that tend to perch) will fire up their wings, using a rapid whirring movement to warm up their bodies. Perching dragonflies rely on solar energy for warmth, but position their bodies skillfully to maximize the surface area exposed to the sun's rays. Some even use their wings as reflectors, tilting them to direct the solar radiation toward their bodies. Conversely, during hot spells some dragonflies will position their bodies to minimize sun exposure, and use their wings to deflect the sun.

Look what's resting on some logs - A Monarch Butterfly on one side and a Common Rose a short distance away. Monarchs are famous for their migration patterns which last longer than the lifetime of a single generation...
 
A boy exclaims in surprise - Look at that human over there! She is even smaller than a housefly...
  
Watch out! There is a ferocious centipede on the loose! It looks headed for...
 
An angry scorpion! They must be headed for the housefly as dinner!

The snail watches the scene calmly, gliding by and leaving a trail of slime in its wake...

Nearby, on a blade of grass, a praying mantis is watching a grasshopper...
(To see the life cycle of a praying mantis, catch "Bugs! 3D – A RainForest Adventure", 
a documentary of the fascinating universe of insects magnified up to 250,000 times their normal size where a single raindrop can be as big as whole pond.)

What's this - A giant can of insecticide!

It must be used for spraying household pests like this American Cockroach...
 
And this mosquito...

And yes, the Aedes Mosquito with its striped legs can cause dengue (as this boy pointed out) 
so do keep your home free of stagnant water...

Stand off with a bee... Luckily it's not the side with the sting...

Taking a short break underneath the shelter of some leaves, Merlion Wayfarer spotted a few little humans enjoying some fun activities...

  • Pretending to be a fly on the wall...


  • Adding colours to ladybirds and butterflies...

  • Counting how many insects they can spot...
  •  Big humans teaching little humans how to identify insect calls...


  • Venturing into the cosy nest of a gigantic Singapore Blue Spider and reading Bugs Facts...
  • Learning how bugs communicate and how they can be useful to humans...


  • Figuring how a squirming little "worm" can end up as an insect with wings...
  • Most importantly, finding out what's a "bug" and what are the different types of bugs...

Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, Merlion Wayfarer ventured into the bouncing forest path, 
her legs sinking knee-deep into the leaves...

With a blinding flash, she was back to her normal size at the Science Centre. What a relief!


She went on to explore the other activities for normal-sized humans outside the exhibition...
  • Good photo opportunities with more bugs - The dung beetle is a popular crowd favourite...
  • Normal-sized humans are able to try on the creative bug costumes designed by students from a secondary school...
  • Other fringe activities include do-it-yourself insect kits, clay-modelling and a studio photo setup...

The sun is setting, better head off home before the insects come alive at night!

Thank you, Science Centre Singapore and Golin Harris!

|   "Marvel At The Small Things In Life"   |   "Science For The Young And Young-At-Heart"   |
 
More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer Goes Green's Picasa at :
Places - Science Centre
    

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