Bugs « My Itchy Fingers

Mystery of a Caterpillar

November 19, 2009 at 11:19 am | In itchy fingers | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bugs, Nature

The first time Itchyfingers saw this strange caterpillar was at the zoo. Spotted this fellow munching leaf and was immediately drawn by its huge green lump.

Initially I had thought the big lump was the backside of the caterpillar,
especially when the other end looked like it was munching leaf

As the plant was kinda blocked among other plants, it was a bit tough to go nearer to take a closer look at the caterpillar…So I tried to move my position and finally managed to take this picture. At that moment of time, I was just concerned about whether the picture would turn out sharp or not cos it was really a bit far to take a good closeup…

It was only back home on the computer screen that we realised that the big
green lump is the head after looking at the legs. The first three pairs legs on the
thorax are called the thoracic or true legs, which will develop into the adult legs of
butterfly. The other legs on the abdomen are called the pro-legs, which end in small,
hook-like suction cups called crochets. Since pro-legs don’t have segments or joints,
they’re not real legs. These disappear when the caterpillar metamorphoses into
a butterfly or a moth

Hmmm…now that is interesting cos that was the first time Itchyfingers saw this big headed caterpillar. We were curious to find out whose caterpillar was that but unfortunately couldn’t get the answer after seeking help from friends and searching online. All we found was that the caterpillar belongs to a moth, exactly which one we don’t know. But we found a beautiful picture of the caterpillar here. Someone commented that it is “Probably a nolid in the tribe Careini. Two moth species from Hong Kong in the genus Carea have this swollen thorax.” Itchyfingers tried looking under the keywords he mentioned but couldn’t find much information.

It was after a second encounter with this caterpillar that Itchyfingers finally found the name of this caterpillar.

I was having a leisurely walk with some friends at Sime Forest when one friend found this among the leaves. Must say she really have good eye sight… :p Actually we were looking for butterflies and insects that day.. hahah

Can you see anything here? These were different leaves from the ones I
first saw the caterpillar

When I saw this guy I was so happy, cos this time his position was much better. We could go much nearer to examine it closely…too bad I don’t have macro lens with me…

The other end really looked like the head to me the first time I saw it…This
guy was much bigger (about 4cm) than the first one I saw

There are some white spots on the swollen green lump that really looked
like eyes…hahah

Ooo..nice red legs…hahah…The picture on this site shows that the big lump
is actually the thorax and not the head. So I think we shouldn’t be calling
it the Big-head caterpillar anymore, but the Big-chest caterpillar! Hahaha!

Back home, I relooked at the genus name from the comment made on the macro shot found earlier. I was more determined this time to find out the identity of this moth. At last, after combing through the net, I finally found similar pictures of the caterpillar which lead me to these information – this is the larva (or caterpillar) of Carea varipes (Superfamily Noctuoidea, Family Nolidae, Subfamily Chloephorinae, Tribe Careini). Larvae are large and obvious leaf feeders but have not been observed in large numbers, perhaps because of their own natural enemies. Pupation occurs in rolled or between touching leaves. But the moth doesn’t look very pretty…hahah…(more moth pic here). But the information points to the species from Hong Kong, so I am not sure if the ones in Singapore are the same…It should still be a Nolid moth caterpillar, but exactly which one…well, we will need more expert opinion then. Guess the mystery of the caterpillar is still half solved. Certainly hope to be able to learn more of this caterpillar/moth! Do drop Itchyfingers a note if you have more information to share!

Also see related post:
> Seeing Double

When the Hunters Became the Hunted – Hunters & Collectors

August 14, 2009 at 2:09 pm | In itchy backside | Leave a Comment
Tags: Animals, Arts, Birdwatching, Bugs, Education, Environment, Museum, Nature, Uniquely Singapore

In the late 19th century, expeditions were often organised by explorers, nautralists, businessmen and missionaries to the Southeast Asian region. The latest exhibition at the Asian Civilisation Museum (ACM) features more than 300 artefacts by six of these collectors during their many trips. Many of their collections made their way to the then Raffles Library & Museum (the present National Museum of Singapore), the first museum in Singapore. Established in 1849, the museum was founded to study the region’s exotic flora and fauna. The Hunter & Collectors exhibition in ACM recreates the old museum with the many cabinets of rich ethnographic collection and natural history specimens; the latter were on-loan from the Zoological Reference Collection of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR).

Well, frankly speaking, it was a time when natural specimens were collected through ‘hunting’, which means that predators like tigers and leopards, the ‘hunters’ themselves, were now the ‘hunted’, by early collectors.

leopard3
The hunter….a leopard taken from the zoo…

The highlight of the natural specimens section must be this one…not sure if I have seen this specimen in the RMBR during my many visits there…

leopard
A leopard (panthera pardus) poised to pounce! These cats can run at speed
of around 58 km (36 miles) an hour, three times faster than an average
human being!

leopard2
According to the sign, “leopards were found in Singapore at Pulau Ubin, the
MacRitchie Reservoir before 1924, and one is believed to have been shot near
Orchard Road! Although they are believed to be extinct here since WWII,
leopards have reportedly been sighted on Tekong island around 1988.”

This tiger was at the RMBR gallery…but I like the shadow cast. The teeth
looked a bit comical….haha…

This is the False Gavial (Tomistoma schlegelii). The stockier one is the
Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), and can be seen at the Sungei
Buloh Wetland Reserves

Since some of the specimen on display were the same as those in the gallery of RMBR, we shall not show those again.

Yes, I have showed and written about these Proboscis Monkeys (Nasalis
larvatus) on my last visit to RMBR. But what I did not notice was this…

..that the Proboscis has this distinctive white patch on the rear end that looks
like it is wearing a white underwear! Hahahaha….! These guys are good swimmers
and can dive underwater..er…no wonder they need the white swimming trunk..
haha…The thick brown coat looks like a vest… Somehow it looks lost on
the specimen…

siamang3
This is the Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus), the largest gibbon and one
of the noisiest

The Siamang is aboreal and a vegetarian. This species was named by
Stamford Raffles

Can’t remember if this beautiful specimen was displayed at RMBR. This is
Asian Brown Tortoise (Manouria emys). The one Itchyfingers rescued at
Fraser’s Hill should be this species…

This one is so cute, with the head and limbs tucked in! According to the
sign, this is the Pineapple Tortoise (Indotestudo elongata). I have never
heard of such a tortoise species, and thought I have seen similar ones like this…

And yes! A search online says the Pineapple Tortoise is another name for the
Elongated Tortoise. They are also known as Red-nosed Tortoise (how apt!),
Yellow Tortoise and Yellow-headed Tortoise. This sweetie is from the zoo..

grouper
This Orange-spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides) must be the grumpiest
fish I have ever seen…hahah… Looks much better when it is alive…

old
The grumpy fish seen in the old museum in this archival photo…

Moving on, we were attracted by these beautiful drawings by Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill, a British medical doctor, naturalist, ornithologist and curator of the Raffles Museum, in the 20th century. Hmm, no wonder his depiction of the birds and animals were so accurate.

This is the Lesser Crow-Pheasant, or the Lesser Coucal (Centropus
bengalensis javanensis). Can’t find our picture of this bird taken in the wild…

Not too sure if this is the other name for the other Pipit found locally?

lapwing
Lapwings in flight

The Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) taken in the wild

Notice how the artist used white paint to correct on the paper which had
since turned yellowish with time… :p This is the Spotted Dove (Streptopelia
chinensis), a common bird in Singapore

The ’spots’ on the neck are actually from black tips of the white feathers.
Somehow, many malays like to keep these as pets

The Eastern Swallow, better known as the Pacific Swallow (Hirundo
tahitica) here

Unlike Swifts, Swallows can perch and come to the ground to drink or
gather nesting material. Pacific Swallows are common in Singapore, usually
near water and open country, along the coast and also in mangroves

By far, this is the least accurate of all the drawings. This is supposed to be the
Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier)…a bit fat leh… :p

The Yellow-vented Bulbul with the newly fledged…a very common bird in
Singapore

The Siamang

The Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)

Remember Itchyfingers’ post on ‘Monkey See, Monkey Do‘?

Besides the live size specimens, there are also some in this form…

Flattened like pancake… :p This is the Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus)
or the Malayan Flying Lemur. Itchyfingers just read on the latest issue of
Nature Society’s magazine about a pair of mating colugo, which showed the
male as a brownish one and the female as the more grayish one. This brown
specimen was labelled as a male too

colugo2
Can you see anything here?

Now, you can see it! The Malayan Colugo are not related to true lemurs of
the Madagascar. These nocturnal and often well camouflaged animals have
membranes that connect their legs and tail, enabling them to glide from
tree to tree…Itchyfingers have yet to get the chance to see them glide…

The greyish female with a baby…

Remember the Jungle Nymph (Heteropteryx dilatata) that Itchyfingers once cut open?

bbfly
So many butterflies, some of which Itchyfingers have never seen before…
Remember the Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) we wrote about?

The Common Birdwing (Troides helena). This specimen must have aged a lot…

birdwing2
..cos the life butterfly spots a bright yellow on the wings…Was so thrilled
to see this big butterfly again recently…

Nowadays, specimens are no longer acquired through the organising of expeditions…thanks goodness! Most of the newer specimens are from dead animals collected locally. Since the open house of RMBR few months ago which attracted a lot of visitors, many who were first-time visitors, vast interest in natural history was generated and discussed on the papers. It was said that plans for a new and bigger gallery space are being explored, as RMBR has so many more specimens that were only accessible to researchers. Hopefully Singapore will have a better museum for natural history very soon! In the meantime, do visit the Hunters & Collectors Exhibition at the ACM from now till 21 September, or look out for Itchyfingers’ next post for more!

The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research

April 26, 2009 at 11:33 am | In itchy mouth | 1 Comment
Tags: Animals, Bugs, Education, Environment, History, Museum, Nature, Uniquely Singapore

Words of Caution: The following pictures may cause uneasiness for some people…please bear with us and look with your eyes half closed or visit us again soon! :p

Itchyfingers are quite sure that not many people have heard of, let alone visit, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) before, although it is located at National University of Singapore (NUS). That applies to many friends who have studied there too. Formerly called the Raffles Museum, which was founded in 1849, RMBR is now part of the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS. Established on 1 October 1998, the RMBR contains some of the oldest and largest collection of plant and animal specimens from Southeast Asia, dating back to the 19th century. Having not studied in the local varsity, I did not know about this museum until I joined the Nature Society and later became friend with one of the staff there. Can’t remember when was my first visit there, but due to some projects, I had to drop by the office a number of times. Unfortunately each time I had to rush off almost immediately after the meeting. However, during the recent visit to the office, I made it a point to stay back to visit the museum once again.

Visitors to the museum will get to see various exhibits of stuffed and preserved wildlife, some of which, sadly, are already extinct. I remembered when I was a young Tisu still in primary school, one of the top levels of my school had a big glass display of stuffed animals…couldn’t remember what animals those were now but I remembered feeling a bit uneasy and scared looking at the dead animals, especially their eyes…they all looked eerie as if staring at you…Being on the top level meant that there were lesser people walking on the corridor…I remembered I had to walk doubly fast to escape their piercing looks. Wow so scary….hahah…..coward… But that was all in the past…erhem….:p

Part of the exhibits on display. Photography is allowed as long as you do not
use flash…

Signs of “No flash photography” were everywhere but ironically, when I was alone there, some staff members came in with a photographer to take some group shots…and the photographer was firing his flash light against the backdrop of these stuffed animal specimens….hmmm….maybe should do that when there’s no outside visitors? :p

sign1
Do not try to touch the specimens with your itchy fingers…not only are they
fragile and old, they were all coated with toxic preservatives…

The Malayan Sun Bear

Malayan Giant Terrapin

In the background: Rarely seen and a secretive species of wild goat, the Southern
Serow occurs in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. Foreground: A juvenile
Malayan Tapir. Right: The Dhole or Red Dog is widely distributed over
eastern Asia from Siberia south to India, Indochina, the Malay Peninsula,
Sumatra and Java.

Hard to believe we had tigers once upon a long long time….

The Banded Wild Pig, adult and juvenile

Itchyfingers hope to go Borneo to see the Proboscis Monkey one day…

This Leatherback Turtle is the only one recorded from Singapore territorial
water

Wow…Once upon a time we had Green Turtle (left) and Hawksbill Turtle
in our water!

The Greater Mousedeer. Itchyfingers had seen its cousin, the Lesser
Mousedeer, in Malaysia’s national park

The Small-clawed Otters can still be found in Pulau Tekong, which is
out-of-bound for civilians

The Common Palm Civet and the Sumatran Rhinoceros. The head of the
rhino had been displayed in RMBR since 1900…

(Ok…warning…time to half close your eyes now….it’s not a pretty sight…)

Looking at the specimens, it was especially sad to know many of these on display could be one of the last of its kind to be found in Singapore. One of these sad stories belonged to a last female Banded Leaf Monkey….

banded-leaf-monkey
This old female Banded Leaf Monkey was mauled to death by a pack of
stray dogs. She is now preserved in her own glass container…Looks
pretty scary…

The Banded Leaf Monkey was thought to have been extinct in Singapore until a recent rediscovery of a small family in one of the nature reserves of Singapore. Itchyfingers have not been fortunate enough to see these extremely shy monkeys in the wild yet.

There were also many other smaller specimens of bird, bats, fish, crabs, insects, plants on display.

cowfish
I was intrigued immediately by these specimens..looked so primitive…

Besides the bigger turtle specimens, there were a few of the small species preserved in bottles of solution. How I wish I can see them in the wild!

spiny
A Spiny Terrapin from our nature reserve…

The Big-headed Terrapin, found in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, is
endangered as it is heavily exploited for wild meat and pet trade

Some of the hatchlings that did not make it to the sea….These were from
as recent as 1996 in East Coast beach!

Er…I dun think I wanna take these as medicine….eeee…they have a cute
name though – the Tokay Gecko…sounds like ‘Towkay’, which means ‘boss’
in Hokien…hahah

Most of the bird specimens are preserved this way for easy storage, making
then look like satay bird sticks…:p The museum’s library of thousands of
bird specimens which were not displayed are all kept in drawers

I always find bats very cool…hanging upside down…hahah…

In ancient Chinese culture, bats were regarded as auspicious animals and their decorative form can be found in many household item. Today, maybe due to popular dracula and vampires movies and with lesser contact and understanding of the animal, many people have some misconceptions about bats.

Despite the name, Malayan False Vampire does not suck blood. Instead
it is a hunter of relative large prey like mice, lizards and even smaller
bats

A lot of bats are fruit bats. Notice the long tongue of this specimen? Looks
like he is teasing you from his bottle…:p

I always wonder how they managed to maintain the shape of snakes in
bottles without having them sink to the bottom…This is the venomous Blue
Coral Snake

A Tortoise Beetle. Didn’t manage to take a picture of the one we saw in
Malaysia…

This is a kind of Stink Bug. They may come in yellow, red or green with black.
See how it really looks like a Sumo Wrestler’s face?

I didn’t know there’s such species as the Water Stick Insect…They are
closely related to water scorpions

A beautiful Leaf Insect…

They may be tiny but they are called the Soldier Crabs

It should be fairly easy to recognise this crab with its distinctive spots…

Menacing looking though tiny

Horseshoe Crabs are more related to spiders and scorpions than crabs.
My first encounter of wild horseshoe crabs were two dead ones washed
up to the shore…

The Hermit Crab

These are still found in Singapore

Another gorgeous butterfly…Can’t remember if I have seen them here but
definitely seen them in Malaysia forests

See the face mask on the thorax of this moth?

There are many more interesting animal and plant species in the museum. Though not a very big museum, it is still worth a visit if you are interested in nature. Unfortunately, it is opened on weekdays during office hours only. But if you happen to be on leave, do drop by RMBR to learn a bit more! Admission is free.