Nostalgia beckons at Sentosa

Returned to Sentosa today with girl. Really missed this place since the last transect, which is why I came here so many times. Din see my old team at the last orientation, hopefully they are in Fri's one. Will love to work together with them again.

Wasn't expecting to see much today as the tide is only 0.7m, but well theres always other things to see besides corals. And some little new disoveries too =)

Ovum/Wandering cowrie with its striking orange tenacles. Cowries are used as currencies in China in the past. Man, just imagine last time they can just pick money off the shore. Isn't that nice? :P

This is what Siti said about sunburned seagrass?

Halophila ovalis like our terrestrial grasses have long rhizomes for quick colonization. Another knowledge learnt during the orientation.

What are this? (Left) neatly arranged white plates. (Right) Found all over the shore, these short brown tubes. Are they the encrusting tube worms as in the guide to seashore life?

Operculum

This tamed sea cockroach allowed me to take a close shot =) Sea cockroaches are not actually cockroaches; they don't belong to the class of insects (They have more then 6 legs!). They are actually crustaceans.

(LEFT) These towers are such a nuisance to me and girl. Theres this recording which kept repeating "....get out of here..." or something similar. I wonder if it was telling us. (RIGHT) Beacon in the distance; thick heavy rain clouds at the back.

This is the first time I actually walked to the other side of the shore after those towers. Still remembered Ria said during the last transect that theres another way in from there. More interesting life and rock formation. There was this big pond of water with quite a few species of fishes in there. A little clown fish was also hiding timidly in. Surprisingly I found some corals too.

Corals? I'm not sure leh. I'm so confused about them now ;p Anyone knows? Ascidians, sponges are also problematic in identifying =S Need to buck up.

Picture of the day. An OCTOPUS! Girl found it inside a hole filled with water, with its tentacles sticking out. At first we thought it was dead but it moved after touching it. Man this one is the biggest I seen.

We continued walking down the shore, and saw this rundown jetty with only its supporting legs there. A sign we saw later looks appropriate for it. =) And finally, we saw the back of underwater world. Yea, was wondering how much more we have to go...

so tired as I am typing this now. Good nitez...

This is the cause of our recent freak weather? Global warming ah...

The Pagoda Bagworm

This is the 4th time I am mentioning this bagworm. Previous ones #1, #2, #3 were very brief and uninformative so this time, I thought I will go more in depth into it.

Previously someone had commented on my blog that this unidentified creature was a bagworm moth. Further confirmed it after seeing the specimen at the Singapore Garden Festival. But I just felt incomplete not knowing its species or at least genus. However, sourcing from the web "bagworm" yield nothing close to this bagworm case. Dingli suggested I email to some moth specialist or entomologist. He sourced for me the email of Mr Henry Barlow who authored "An introduction to the moths of South East Asia". Recieved a prompt reply by him the next day, saying that this might be Pagodiella hekmeyeri, or the common name Pagoda Bagworm.

Pagoda bagworm close up

A study by Florida International University (look at paper of Foreign exploration for biological control agents of three invasive species from Asia) on the biological controls of invasive plants in Malaysia found significant herbivory of the pagoda bagworm on Ardisia elliptica, which is the same host where I first saw the bagworm. They also have similar cases and also circular wounds thus showing that Mr Barlow was probably right with his conclusion. It was noted that it is a general pest found on other plants like the oil palm. I had also seen them on sea almonds a few times.

bagworm wounds on the sea almond

Bagworm moths are of the Order Lepidoptera, same as the butterflies and family Psychidae. The distinctive feature of bagworms is that their larvae are remarkable architects, building mobile cases made of environmental materials, in this example, the leaves, to hide themselves in. Thus, within each case hides a tiny caterpillar. For the pagoda bagworm, it scrapes the chlorophyll off the leaf before incising cleanly around the area consumed, creating a circular wound. The excised leaf piece is then added to the bagworm’s protective casing.

Circular holes on Ardisia elliptica

Each species of bagworm construct a unique case hence making it useful for identification. Their cases are binded together with silk and also to its plant host which is very steadfast as I had tried prying them off the leaf with much effort. Another interesting fact is that the adult female of the bagworm develop vestigial wings thus cannot fly. They normally stayed within case while the adult males moths can attain the power of flight.

Theres this amazing macro shots of another species of bagworm building its case using twigs, which I found linked from the Nature Spies blog. Really worth to take a look.

Some thoughts for the new semester~

A new semester, a new year. This holiday had been more meaningful for me than any previous ones even thought this is the shortest (due to army); all credited to my little adventures. Been to quite a few wild trips; 1) River beside Ngee Ann, 2) Sentosa, 3) Labrador Park, 4) Chek Jawa, 5) Kent Ridge Road, 6) Botanical Gardens, 7) Pasir Ris Park, 8) Kusu Island, 9) Sungei Serangoon and lastly, 10) Hindhede Nature Park.

I first set up this small nature blog in a view to help myself familarize with myself the wildlife and biodiversity in singapore. After all, I am a biology student but without a clue of what wildlife singapore has (Typical life science student as I discovered). It had turned up very helpful, since all sightings were by myself with photo illustration of my lousy but trusty canon A520 camera. Pictures do speak a thousand words indeed and reinforced by small snippets of facts which I dug from the internet. All the posts were of special meaning to me since all the wildlife were sighted and photographed by myself.

My trusty camera

The marine habitat is the most fascinating to me, with such a wide diversity and easily accessible intertidal areas. Thinking of taking up diving soon too. Second up with be birding, which I agreed with Dingli that it is the most diverse and easiest to spot vertebrates here. Of cos, any creature which moves still never fail to fascinates me.

Now that the holiday is over and back to studies, posts will be less I guess. But I'm sure theres always something new to encounter so this blog wun be that stagnant. Singapore's diversity is rich indeed. After this 2 months of blogging and adventures, I'm proud to say that I'm a nature lover =D