Out came a moth

One day the little caterpillar became a full-fledged Tussock Moth! Cocoon stage lasted about 2 weeks. What remains of the cocoon:

It's a male!
Just when it emerged:
I left the cover of the container opened during the night and true enough, it was gone by the next day. All the best to finding a mate to my first full-grown caterpillar!

Tussock Moth

I received a pleasant new year's gift from my dad whom picked up a hairy caterpillar from the floor in one hdb estate and brought it home. It was so furrily cute that I decided to keep it and watch it grow.

I googled it and found out that this is the caterpillar of the Pale Tussock Moth (Calliteara pudibunda) which is in the Lymantriidae family. The distinctive feature of this caterpillar is the four tuffs of hair along its back. However be warned, for the hair projections can cause skin irritation upon contact. In fact, tussock moths have caused an outbreak of dermatitis in Singapore =O

Dad said that there was a bunch of shrubs filled with caterpillars, and indeed, when I went to see for myself, the Ixora javanica leaves were almost eaten bare. There were many cocoons however, which meant that my caterpillar was a late bloomer.

The caterpillars use the hairs on their back as camouflage; a little shelter they snuggle in whereas they complete their pupae stage.

Hope my caterpillar would grow up healthy and well!

Owl in Singapore

I spotted an owl at the canal near my house!

It was pretty late, close to 1.30am, when there came a screeching sound like "screeeet screet!" and a huge flapping of wings over the canal. I could see immediately that it was a pretty large bird and got really excited.


It was only when the bird stood still on a fence and swivelled its head around that i then realised that i was looking at an owl. Wow! My first sighting of an owl in Singapore!


I couldn't take a good close look as it flew away shortly after but my guess is that it's a Barn Owl (Tyto alba)

Apparently it's quite common in Singapore (since the 1980s) and have adapted quite well to urban environments, roosting and nesting in abandoned buildings as well as in trees.

I wished I could have gotten a camera shot of it!

Chilli Plant

My Dad cultivates a Chilli Plant in the balcony.

This chilli plant, which bears what we commonly know as Chilli Padi, is also called Bird's eye Chilli (Capsicum frutescens L.) [No idea why it is named as such]. It is a shrub, a perennial plant (fruits throughout the year) with small tapering fruits which are commonly used in Asian cuisine. This plant is native to tropical America.

The newly formed flower bud and the budding chilli fruit, or berry, behind. Yeap, the fruits of the chilli plant is classified as berry in scientific terms, as the chilli fruit is produced from a single ovary.

Freshly opened flower. The purple-blue pollen sacs and the short stigma and style have yet to mature.

A mature flower, completed with pollens that are ready to disperse. I saw one or two ants making visits to the flowers on the plant the other day, crawling towards the base of the flower probably to taste the sweet nectar. I suppose ants could be one of the pollinators of this plant.

Green not-yet-matured chilli fruit and the red matured ones. As we all know, the smaller the chilli fruit is, the spicier it is. The fruits of this plant species is in fact one of the hottest 'chillis' around. The ones in above are not yet plucked, but would you like to have a go at its fiery taste? ;D

Insect visitors

I live on the 23th floor, and yet, there's a myriad of insect visitors to my humble abode.
Above is a dragonfly zipping around the kitchen and got the whole family in excitement while trying to catch it. It was hard to identify the exact species of dragonfly due the the opaqueness of the plastic bag in which the it was trapped.
Dragonflies belong to the order Odonata, which also contains Damselflies. Interestingly, Odonata came from the Greek word "Odonto-" which means tooth, in relation to the strong teeth found on the mandibles of most adults. For more information on this order, refer to here.
This cricket flew to my room and reappeared in the hall
A weird yet interesting looking fly-like insect landing on my notes. haha
The body of a wasp, i think my dad found it in the balcony
Toilet Moth Fly (Psychodidae), a common insect found in the toilet, hence the name
There was a day when it was the termite mating season and all the termites came buzzing into my flat, attacking all available lights. That above was the one at the balcony.
The next day most of the termites died, above is the bodies of the termite alates. Most of us mistake the winged insects for flying ants, my dad couldn't believe it when i told him they were actually termites. Click here for the differences between ant and termite.
This weird looking ant-like insect had a pair of pincers in front, that opened up wide when it felt threatened. It was so funny; the sadistic me 'bullied' it for awhile just to see how it opened and closed up its pincers. A shot-glass gift from my friend's birthday party is proving to by handy in catching insects which landed on my table, haha!
Can anyone tell me the species of this insect?
Probably a flying ant, that was rather big in size (in my opinion), crawling over my Microbio notes. By the looks of this picture, this insect probably disapproves of Koch's Postulates, hahaha
This cute little bug is pretty common; its really tiny and likes to 'hop' around
In flight...
I have no idea what insect is this, it's probably a bug. It seemed to have some trouble in moving around, and was just crawling frantically in circles o.O I forgot what i did to it =x
This pretty looking insect landed one night, hid behind piles of notes, and died the next day on my table =(
Possibly a stink bug, this insect gave me some pretty nice poses for my camera, as well as a well-deserved break from my studies =P

Don't worry, i have a policy at home which is to catch the insects and release it outside instead of killing them, so the insects were either released or left alone in my room. I don't blame my Mum for calling me crazy. hahaha

birds here, birds there, birds everywhere

while walking home along the canal, i saw some birds, which i finally know how to identify (well with some help nonetheless, haha):

1. Little Heron (Butorides striatus)
2. Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) [was pretty pleased to see this]
3. White-vented Myna (Acridotheres grandis)

that's all but i'm sure there's lots more birds around my area. After years of seeing them as "just many different kinds of birds", i'm now glad to say that these are the birds i've seen throughout the years living in my neighbourhood:

-Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
-House Crow (Corvus splendens)
-Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)
-Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)
-Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis) [a pair nested at my flat's balcony early this year, but sadly their offspring didn't survive =( ]
-Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis)
-Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) [used to see this pretty often when i was younger, but now where'd they go? ]
-Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis)
-Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) [never actually saw this bird but heard it's loud piercing call a couple of times; when i was a little kid i used to think "oh thats a monkey calling! can you hear that?" hahaha]

okays that's about it, i'll be on the lookout of more birds as the days go by =)

References:
A Guide To Urban Creatures. Singapore Science Centre

eye-boggling insects

this morning dad's daily activities was disrupted by a "huge butterfly" which refused to leave the warmth of our kitchen; it kept flying back to the cosy area above the stove when dad tried to chase it away. Poor dad spent one hour clearing the clutter in front of a nearby window so that it could be easily chased out while i was sleeping like a pig through all the commotion. =P

Anyway i suspect that it's not a "huge butterfly" but an Atlas Moth (Attacus Atlas), a pretty moth commonly seen in Singapore during November to January. Sadly, it only lives for two weeks in the adult stage, their sole purpose only to find mates to breed.

It's the second spotting of the Atlas Moth in my flat though; i was lucky to spot few years back =D

More information about the Atlas Moth can be found here

Gigantic Moths aside, here's another fun fact about the insect world:
Welcome the case-bearing leaf beetle, in the same order Coleoptera as the dung beetle, which also see goodness in dung.
In this case, the juvenile case-bearing leaf beetle essentially uses its own dung (as well as some provided from mom when they were just eggs) to form an armour around them, thus deterring predators.

"Often the predators did not even investigate the potential meals, presumably because the beetles fooled them into believing they were just turds. As the researchers noted, while predators at times use feces to help track down prey, it seems unlikely most would expect potential victims to dwell within the excrement itself." - LiveScience

Imagine that! A potential predator chancing upon an excretement, and realising that its a clue to a potential prey, and then looks around and wonders "where's food??" when its just right before their very eyes.

Now the next time we pinch our noses at the feces that we see, remember that it's actually important to certain creatures of Nature...
"All hail the dung!"