Kuhl's Flying Gecko

This has got to be the coolest gecko I have ever seen (and touched) in real life! I was scanning a tree trunk for any potential macro subject(s) when, from out of nowhere, this amazing Kuhl's Flying Gecko (Ptychozoon kuhli), landed onto the very same tree in front of me!

Look at the cool patterns, shapes and colors on this gorgeous gecko! It was wagging its tail much like a puppy too at first.


Kuhl's Flying Gecko (Ptychozoon kuhli). Location: a forest in Selangor.




After taking like many many shots of this gecko, I thought to myself, why not try to touch it, so I did. Surprisingly, it was quite docile.


I even put it on my hand :).

You can see the flaps on the sides of its body, flattened tail and webbed feet in this image, and in the last one as well.



It was hard to say goodbye to this beauty, but I knew it belonged in the wild so I let it go!

Lantern fly

Another lantern fly added to my collection. The species count now stands at 9. It is not exactly a new species for me since I had photographed a nymph of this lovely Zanna sp. back in Oct 3, 2009. Yes, it took me a little more than three years before I finally had the luck to come across an adult Zanna sp. lantern fly!

I spent 4 hours and took like 300 images of this exotic beauty!

All images taken with a Sigma 150mm, 1.4x Kenko teleconverter and cheap tripod, fully natural light. (except the nymph images)

Adult of Zanna sp.




Zanna sp. and a Polyrhachis sp. ant.


Zanna sp. and two Polyrhachis sp. ants


The nymph






My complete collection of these beautiful lantern flies / lantern bugs of Malaysia is here.

 

Semachrysa jade - new lacewing species

Semachrysa jade - a new species of lacewing I found in Selangor. Also my first time lucky with lacewing. Saw a couple of lacewings before but never managed any decent shots.

I first saw and photographed this species in the wild in its natural habitat on May 10, 2011. A few lacewing experts came across images of this lacewing I posted in forums and Flickr and informed me that this could be a new species. Luckily, I came across this beautiful species again on Jan 27, 2012. Specimen was captured and sent to Mr. Winterton for description with the help from Mr. Brooks.

New species. Semachrysa jade, Winterton, Guek & Brooks, 2012. More info here, here and here.

Also, if you google "Semachrysa jade", you will get pages after pages of hits!


















More images of this gorgeous lacewing can be found on my Flickr set.

It is on Youtube too!



Edit: May 23, 2013

This new species has made it to the Top 10 New Species of 2013.

 

Cool jumping spider

At first glance, I thought it was a Camaricus maugi crab spider. Peeping through the viewfinder, I was surprised to discover that it was a jumping spider, one that looked almost like a Camaricus maugi crab spider.

Coiicidence? Or is it mimicking the Camaricus maugi? And if so, why?


Camaricus maugi crab spider. See the resemblance?


My first time finding a Salticid like this, no ID yet.













A Camaricus maugi crab spider with treehopper prey


This one caught a larva.


Anyway, it's not safe even for a crab spider.




More jumping spiders here.

More tropical spiders here.

Another giraffe weevils!

Another type of giraffe weevils / leaf rolling weevils spotted. Very similar to the Cycnotrachelus sp. that I have often seen and photographed, but instead of on the Bridelia sp host plant, these were found of a different type of host plant, with relatively smaller leaves. No ID on the plant yet.

Giraffe weevil, male, body length approximately 9mm including the neck, and 5.6mm excluding the neck.

IDed as Leptapoderus (Soendapoderus) semirufus (Faust, 1883). Thanks to Andrei from The leaf-rolling weevils (Coleoptera:  Rhynchitidae, Attelabidae) of the world fauna

ID credit:

A male Paracycnotrachelus sp. giraffe weevil was found on similar host plant just a few feet apart. Body length approximately 10mm including the neck, and 6mm excluding the neck. This same species of leaf rolling weevils have been found on Bridelia sp plant as well.

Male giraffe weevil image courtesy of Jasrul.

The host plant, no ID yet.






The nitidi (mini popiah)


A closer look at the leaf


Other types of giraffe weevils/leaf rolling beetles I have documented:

Paracycnotrachelus sp. on Bridelia sp. host plant

Spiny giraffe weevils

Spiny giraffe weevils and host plant

I was extremely excited when I found this spiny / spiky version of the more common Paracycnotrachelus sp. giraffe weevil / long necked beetle a couple of weeks ago.

Edit: this spiny/spiky weaver has been IDed as Hoplapoderus hystrix (Fabricius, 1801). Thanks to Andrei from The leaf-rolling weevils (Coleoptera:  Rhynchitidae, Attelabidae) of the world fauna

                           
 
Hoplapoderus hystrix                             The more common type, Paracycnotrachelus sp

It is easy to see the resemblance. The only difference being the one on the left has spines / spikes on her elytra. Of course, I could not help thinking how dangerous it would be for a male spiny giraffe weevil / long necked beetle to mate with a female, with all the spines / spikes. Ouch :D

The similarity doesn't just end there. I was lucky to witness the whole process of how a female beetle roll up a leaf  to lay egg in.

This is the host plant for this type of spiny giraffe weevil / long necked beetle. I don't have an ID for this plant yet but the closest match I found was Celtis sp.



A closer look:


I did not capture the whole process but you can check out how the Cycnotrachelus roll up a leaf and lay egg in here. The process is similar. You can also find out what kind of host plant the Cycnotrachelus sp like here.

Now a couple more shots of this shy but lovely female spiny/spiky giraffe weevil/long necked beetle.

The hole was the work of this cute spiny giraffe weevil / long necked beetle. She feeds on this plant, and lay eggs on similar plant too.




The next logical things to do, is, of course, to find a male specimen, and better still, a mating pair!

A mating pair like this Paracycnotrachelus sp....but the spiny/spiky version :D

Colugo aka flying lemur from Langkawi

I was in Langkawi as one of the four guest speakers for the Langkawi Birding & Fotofest (Nov 19 - 21). As soon as I arrived at the hotel at Datai Bay in the evening on the 18th, one of the friendly staff there showed me a colugo perching on a tree near the hotel porch. I had only the Tamron 17-50 with me though at that time. This was shot with the pop-up flash at high ISO. Not a good one but okay as a record shot of an active colugo.

This was how a "normal" nature photographer (like me) would shoot a cute and rather rare creature like Colugo aka flying lemur.




Luckily, a friend of mine in Langkawi - Madi, was kind enough to loan me his Tamron SP90.

I started looking for these cologos again when I had time on day 3. I finally found one perching on a tree at a height of about 10 feet. Lowest I could find of all three I saw that day.



I climbed up this wall, which was about chest high.


All I could get was back view though. Good to have a shot of this nevertheless.


Then I saw a pail. Stood on it for a few shots. Not good enough. Then I found some bricks. Still not good enough. More bricks. Still not very good.


Even more bricks. Five layers, then six, finally seven!


After the labor of brick laying, this was that shot I managed to get.


I even borrowed a ladder at one point but the work in progress ladder could only be used when leaned against the wall. That end result wasn't that different from climbing up the wall.


This was the shot I got from up on the ladder:


I would have attempted more layers of bricks. But I wasn't very confident of my bricklaying skill and balancing skill.

Edit: a few more shots from my 2011 Langkawi trip: