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 Thomisidae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomisidae. Show all posts

Rail Corridor - A Peaceful Walk

6:38 PM  , , , , , , , ,  

Bukit Timah
Rail Corridor
Central, Singapore
May 2014

The start of the path seems to go on "forever" in a straight mud-track road. Along the way, several concrete pedestrian bridges crisscross it 


Of Spiders & Creatures Caught In Somethings

A muscular Stoliczka's Crab Spider (Thomisus stoliczka) waving its front legs about 
like Toy Story's Rocky Gibraltar...

A free-roaming Shield Bug (Pentatomoidea)wanders about on a leaf... 

Oblivious to the plight of 2 of its friends who lie entombed in nearby webs...

A short distance away, a grasshopper (Orthoptera ) has a foot bath in a raindrop on a leaf...

The Natural Greenery

The figs are in season now - A laden sprig of Common Yellow Stem Fig (Ficus fistulosa)...

A strong smell wafts through the air - Likewise, the jackfruits are in season too...

Next to the durian, chempedaks and jackfruits have the strongest aroma. The jackfruit is a close cousin of the chempedak with a similar appearance, but is much bigger and rounder, about 4 times the size of a chempadak.

Of Butts & Dragons

A light Malayan Eggfly (Hypolimnas anomala) Butterfly rests on a fern...

A Blue Dasher (Brachydiplax chalybea) Dragonfly perches on a stalk of grass...

Of Birds That Fly & Chirp

This is a Pacific Swallow (Hirundo tahitica). The very same bird that zips around the sky and hovers above the surface of the water near water sources...

A very tame Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus). Instead of the pale yellow blue eyes of its papa and mama, this "baby" version has the clearest pale blue eyes...
(Not noisy too!)

It was certainly a peaceful walk away from the hustle and bustle of city life...


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Eastern Twilight Surprises

2:28 AM  , , , , , , , , , ,  

Tampines
East, Singapore
February 2013

The visit at twilight was full of little surprises...
  • A Tetragnathidae (Big-Jawed Spider) silhouetted against the rays of the setting sun...

  • A blob of unknown origin...
  • A bright-hued grasshopper...
  • A freckled one...
  • And a moulted one...
  • A bright Ampittia Dioscorides Camertes (Bush Hopper)...
  • Ant burrows in little hills that go deep underground...
  • A plant that appeared to have branches twirled from wires...
  • A Neoscona Nautica (Brown Sailor Spider) quietly hiding in the leaf to await sunset...
  • And a very photogenic Thomisus Stoliczka (Stoliczka's Crab Spider)...


The full albums are available at:


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Near The Water

10:19 AM  , , , , , , , , ,  

North, Singapore
August 2012
Cloudy

Merlion Wayfarer spotted a few Argyrodes Flavescens (Red Silver Spider) in some old webs. These spiders are "food stealers", helping themselves to insects trapped in the web of the host, or prey stored by the host in the web, or a freshly-killed victim that is being consumed by the host.

There was also an orb-weaver. These spiders spin circular webs and normally hide in a rolled leaf nearby in the day and venture out into the web only at night.

Tis is the season with the whole pond is awash with the pretty blooms in pink. Powdery pink lotuses can be found every few steps around the circumference of the pond. It was a sight to behold!

A sharp-eyed Merlion Wayfarer spotted the Pardosa Pseudoannulata (Pond Wolf Spider) on the lotus leaves. Three were spotted.

 Lots of guppies in the pond - A healthy sign of life!
Living near the water were also a multitude of dragons and damsels. Here are the photogenic ones that appeared in her lens...
  • Dragonfly [unidentified], Aethriamanta Gracilis (Pond Adjutant)
  • Crocothemis Servilia (Common Scarlet), Aethriamanta Gracilis (Pond Adjutant), Aethriamanta Gracilis (Pond Adjutant)
  • Dragonfly [unidentified], Damselfly [unidentified]
  • Acisoma Panorpoides (Trumpet Tail) Male
  • Crocothemis Servilia (Common Scarlet), Acisoma Panorpoides (Trumpet Tail) Female



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