Sunday, October 11, 2009

Caught In The Rain

I thought it was a perfect morning for outing so I headed to the western side of the water catchment area early yesterday (10 Oct) morning. While I was strolling and enjoying the greenery along the dirt track, the Sun in fact was quietly and slowly retreating and hiding behind the congregating dark clouds. Soon the clouds and rains ruled the sky.

As the rain was getting heavier, I decided to wait under a fly-over bridge where we used to shoot many puddling butterflies - but not now anymore.

I saw a few Tiger Beetles (Cicindela aurulenta) on a discarded sand heap . Extremely alert and skittish, these beetles could detect slightest movement and flew off. I just didn't have the luck and patience to be up close with any of them. However, I still managed to get some medium-range shots as these fierce predators on other small insects usually don't fly far and tend to forage close to the ground.This particular species of Tiger Beetle has six distinctive yellow spots on the body, a large pair of compound eyes, long legs and have metallic or iridescent blue and green coloration. I wonder if there is other species of Tiger Beetle in Singapore.
After a few shots, it decided to turn away from me and flew off.A plant-feeding insect, this solitary and very tiny treehopper was resting on a grass blade. The dorsal view shows two 'horns' protruding out from the head. From this shot of its side view, I can see the wings and its eyes. Perhaps due to its inconspicuous size, I seldom paid attention to treehopper in the past. More information about treehopper can be found here. There wasn't any convincing sign that the rain would stop soon so I packed up and headed to a bus stop nearby. I hope the weather will be kind to me next Saturday.

No comments:

Post a Comment