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Sunday, February 1, 2009

Exploring Ubin

An interesting day at Pulau Ubin today, with many nice photographic opportunities. Below are just some of the better ones taken during the trip.

Male Golden orb web spider
The reddish male golden orb web spider, Nephila philipes. Look at how small it is compared to the female which it is on!

White-rumped shama
A beautiful white-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus) flew very close to us, allowing a close up shot. It is a rare resident here and threatened due to bird trade.

Butterfly
A Tawny Coster butterfly, Acraea violae sits comfortably, giving me a chance to get a macro shot of it. This is possibly a female with its slightly faded wings.

Fuffy white caterpillar
AG found this fluffy white caterpillar on the leaf litter. I wonder what kind of butterfly or moth it will turn out to be.

Stingless bees
LK spotted a hive of stingless bees that made its home from a hole at the gate of Chek Jawa.

Blue stripped hermit crab
At Chek Jawa boardwalk, the tide is still very high so we couldn't see that much things around. However, at the mangrove area, there were lots of blue-stripped hermit crabs around, showing of its stunning electric blue colour.

Giant Mudskipper
Mudskippers are another prominent inhabitant in the mangroves. This is the Giant Mudskipper (Periophthalmodon schlosseri), one of the largest species in the world.

Bagworm
The find for the day is this bagworm moth (Family: Psychidae) which I have been wanting to see this for quite a while. This caterpillar builds its home by cutting branches off the plant and pasting it on its body. It is amazing how this architect actually managed to create it in a nice spiraling fashion. You can see a newly added branch at the end that is still greenish in colour.

3 comments:

  1. Cool moth! Someone shld video the process.

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  2. Excellent photos! I especially loved the shot of the Nephila spiders, with the male sitting on top of the female. Is he in a suicidal mood? =P

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  3. Ha, yalor SD, but don't have so much time to sit there and wait.

    I am not sure Ivan, maybe if I stayed on for awhile longer it will be between the jaws of the female!

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