Spiranthes aestivalis, on Tuesday. I never knew I'm just 20 minutes from one of the spots they yet live. Unfortunately lack of wetlands protection likely means they'll go extinct soon, certainly in Austria - pictures on a farmer's meadow with little protection.
I hope everyone is having a weevil-worthy Wednesday! Here is a bluegrass billbug (Sphenophorus parvulus). (Don't worry, it flipped back over and was fine.)
On the weekend, on an orchid hunting trip with a friend, we stopped the car at a random spot along the road in Carinthia. He was better prepared than me and just walked through a stream with rubber boots while I was contemplating if/how to cross, when he called and said I better come see this. A mossy patch, next to a stream, with 150-200 Neottia cordata. Not a species we expected to find at all, but a definite highlight of the trip! (And worth the slight injuries I obtained when jumping across the stream onto slippery rock...) #wildorchids@wildorchids#inaturalist#bloomscrolling#wildflower
A recent new species for me: Grypus equiseti, the horsetail weevil. Found in boggy meadow next to a creek where there was, indeed, a lot of horsetail (Equisetum).
Happy to spot this pair of Lesser Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna javanica) at the pond near Tanglin Trust School, Singapore, on 7 June 2024. They were bathing, and I had to take numerous shots before I finally got this one of both of them posing nicely.
The Lesser Whistling-Duck is an uncommon resident bird.
Time of the small green orchids! Herminium monorchis, Liparis loeselii, and Malaxis monophyllos. In addition to being hard to notice all three sadly share habitat loss and are very rare now in Austria.
A Stick Insect, Presbistus peleus, spotted at Dairy Farm Nature Park, Singapore, along the Wallace Trail, on 17 June 2024. Looked like a twig stuck to the leaf, but decided to have a closer look and saw what it was.
Stick Insects are, of course, a master of disguise and usually only move when necessary. So, spotting one is never easy.
A walk at Windsor Nature Park, Singapore, and the nearby Central Catchment Nature Reserve after the predawn rain today, 16 June 2024 yielded this beauty: a Fairy Lynx Spider, genus Hamadruas. Needed to zoom in with the camera to appreciate its colours.
A passer-by asked for a look and was also wowed by it. Good to be able to spread an appreciation of spiders. 🙂
A Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata) spotted at the Railway Corridor near Buona Vista, Singapore, on 7 June 2024. It was feeding on grass seeds, not distracted by cyclists and runners rushing past it.
A Pale Mottle (Logania marmorata) spotted at the Railway Corridor near Buona Vista, Singapore, on 7 June 2024. It looked like a little blinking fairy when in flight.
The Pale Mottle is a small, odd butterfly that feeds on excreted aphid fluid when adult, and on the aphids themselves when it is a caterpillar.
A Lineated Barbet (Psilopogon lineatus) spotted at Bukit Gombak Park, Singapore, on 25 May 2024. It flew in, took a look around and then went off, so I only had several seconds to get these shots.
The Lineated Barbet is an introduced, resident bird.
Got a real corker for you all this #MiteMonday! Found this hister beetle (family Histeridae) covered in odd filaments, a few with shiny round brown things attached to the ends.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "It's some kind of fungus, like Cordyceps"—you're thinking of Ophiocordyceps, it got reclassified—"or Hesperomyces virescens on ladybugs." But Experience Hath Shewn me that it's almost never fungus.
That round, flattened shape had my inner voice going "Uropodina!" And it was right. I had thought these phoretic (hitchhiking) mites always anchored themselves flush to their host with their trademark anal pedicels™, but it turns out some excrete pedicels that are quite long and stalk-like, like this. For more information see this recent #OpenAccess paper, particularly Fig. 1: https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2023.2288847 :OpenAccess:
A Golden-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cosmodela aurulenta) spotted at Chestnut Nature Park, Singapore, on 8 June 2024. A common tiger beetle, but difficult to get good shots of, as they usually fly or run away as you approach them. This one was more patient and allowed me to get closer for this shot.
Happy to get shots of this lantern bug, genus Polydictya, at Ulu Sembawang Park Connector, Singapore, on 9 June 2024. I'm grateful to a nice lady who pointed it out to me.
Happy to spot the Bronze Flutterer (Rhyothemis obsolescens) at Chestnut Nature Park, Singapore, on 8 June 2024. Just when I thought my walk through the park was going to be 'boring', this uncommon dragonfly pops up. 🙂
A Pygmy Grasshopper, identified as Lamellitettigodes contractus, spotted at Sungei Buloh Wetland, Singapore, Reserve on 26 May 2024. Tiny, and well camouflaged on the railing. Fortunate to spot it when it was moving about.
The Dark Tit (Hypolycaena thecloides) and Common Tit (Hypolycaena erylus), spotted at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore, but on different days. The Dark Tit is much rarer than the Common Tit, and to the untrained eye, they both look much the same. One difference is the extra brown mark on the hindwing of the Dark Tit.
In allotment news I just sat on the only squash plant that was absolutely thriving and not shredded by this year's epic slugmageddon. Here are some things I did not sit on.
Edit: there is a frog in those self seeded wild flowers (you might think of them as 'weeds' but you'd be wrong)