While looking for butterflies at the Alexandra Hospital garden, Itchyfingers also had some other interesting finds.

A cute tiny juvenile Changeable Lizard. I like this picture cos the way its tail
curled seemed to merge into the leaf…hahah

The Robber Fly, Family Asilidae. Not sure why they are called robbers
though..haha. They are also called assassin flies, and  are widely distributed.
There are about 5000 species worldwide and about 900 species in North America.
Many species have long, tapering abdomens, sometimes with a sword-like ovipositor.
Some fat-bodied ones mimic bumble bees..

Busy like a bee… :p

I was so excited to see this…

You may just dismiss this as dried twigs dropped from trees, but how can
that be when it was sticked on the underside of a palm leave?

Actually this ‘twig package’ belongs to the moth family Psychidae, which is found worldwide – the Bagworm Moth, named for the baglike cases the larvae carry with them. The bag ranges in sizes and is constructed from silk and bits of leaves, twigs and other debris. This site says, “The strong-bodied male has broad, fringed wings with a wingspread averaging 1 in. (25 mm). The wormlike female lacks wings. Bagworm larvae often damage trees, especially evergreens.The female remains inside the bag her entire life; males are nimble fliers and in the fall fly around infested trees in search of a mate. During feeding, caterpillars emerge from the top of the bag and hang on to the host plant with their legs and sometimes with a silken thread; the bottom of the bag remains open to allow fecal material to pass out. Young larvae disperse, walking or using wind currents. During molts and pupation, caterpillars seal the bags.” This was the first time I saw this Bagworm Moth after reading about it. Saw it again during another walk with friends just three weeks ago. There is another kind of Bagworm Moth that has a pyramid-shaped bag. If you were to see leaves with almost perfectly-cut circles on them, try look at the undersides of the leaves, chances are you would be able to find these pyramid-shaped bags. Unfortunately, most of the times they were a bit too high so Itchyfingers don’t have any decent photos yet. This site has excellent photos of the larva constructing its ‘home’.

A nice little Praying Mantis nymph…It got its name because of the typical
‘prayer’-like stance of the forelegs… :p

I still remembered my first encounter with a real Praying Mantis was when
my colleague brought his pet mantis to work.. :p That was a large one and he
was showing us how his pet fed on a tiny frog… Read this interesting report
on reproduction of a Praying Mantis

Another interesting find was this – the Ant-Mantis. This is actually a
mantis mimicking ants

Now, why do mantis have to mimic ants? Well, ants are abundant all over the world and their predators, like birds and wasps, which rely on vision to identify preys will normally avoid them either because they are unpalatable or aggressive. Also, by mimicking ants, the mantis will be able to approach an unsuspicious ant to prey on..hahah…cunning.. :p There are many other insects that use ant mimicry for these reasons.

Licking its antenna like a typical Praying Mantis..

A short visit at the Alexandra Hospital but nevertheless a fruitful one! There are simply so much to learn and discover in nature, if only you are willing to spend time exploring! With the on-going school holidays, wouldn’t it be a much meaningful time spent learning more in the natural outdoor classrooms than wasting them away in shopping centres? :p

Also see related posts:
> A Visit to the Hospital
> Mystery of a Moth Caterpillar
> Of Dragon and Lizards – Mistaken Identities #4
> Changing Colours – Mistaken Identities #2
> Living in Cold Blood – Mistaken Identities #1

No, Itchyfingers didn’t visit the hospital for checkups, but we were there to visit some friends, or rather, some friends from nature. :p We have long heard that Alexandra Hospital has a garden with lotsa butterflies, but never visited it until some time ago. :p

You would have thought this is one of our parks right? :p

The Alexandra Hospital Butterfly Trail has many host plants that butterflies
love, thus making it a haven for these creatures. For butterflies lovers, this
is also heaven for them!

There are also many medicinal plants in the garden, inspired by Dr Wee’s
book

Oooo….I can’t wait to see a snake…hahah… Most snakes in Singapore
are non-venomous, so we shouldn’t be too alarm when we see them, especially
if we leave them alone, they will also leave us alone

There are indeed quite a few species of butterflies fluttering their wings among
the many plants. This is the Centaur Oakblue (Arhopala centaurus nakula)
银链嬈灰蝶. The wing looked a bit damaged, otherwise it should look more
like this. This individual was among the most cooperative ones to stay so
still to allow me to go so near to photograph

Many of the other butterflies were not so cooperative and gotta say that I din expect there to have so many mossies around…hahah…din bring any repellent, so I was also a bit impatient to wait for better opportunities to shoot.

A record shot of the Dark Band Brown Bush (Mycalesis mineus) 小眉眼蝶

A little pond with kois

Just behind the pond there is this photographic butterfly information panel.
These are the many different butterflies that were found here at the hospital!
All photos courtesy of Butterfly Pals and Butterfly Circle

Each of these shows the Latin as well as common name of the butterfly
species and its host plant. So if you can recognise the host plant, chances
of finding the butterflies are higher…hmmm….Itchyfingers must really go
and study plants…By the way, I saw this Common Mormon but was unable
to shoot its picture…what a waste!

Then I saw this! The Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) 裳凤蝶!
It was a long time ago since I last saw this beautiful butterfly, one of the
biggest in Singapore, with forewings length of 85mm

It says the host plant is Aristolochia tagala

But I found my Birdwing flirting and collecting nectar from these flowers.
Must go and find out the name of this flower… (Thanks to Khew from Butterfly
Circle, now I know this flower is called Bauhinia kockiana)

A nice infomative sign on the metamorphosis of butterfly was unfortunately
partially covered by overgrown plants…

Life cycle of the Autumn Leaf butterfly

Around three weeks later, a beautiful butterfly will emerge. Different species
of butterflies will take different time to transform from egg to adult

The name of this plant is so strange! It’s called Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
(Brunfelsia pauciflora/calycina). It was only when I did a search that I
found that it is so called because at one time there will be white, lavender
and purple blooms on the same plant. Too bad I only took the purple flower

Besides plants and butterflies, there were also many birds spotted…

Similarly, photographs of birds spotted at the hospital were displayed here

My history knowledge is not the best, so it is good to read and know more
here

It was a short visit at the Alexandra Hospital as it started to drizzle very soon. But it was great to know that there is another good and easily accessible place to look for some good photo opportunities, as Itchyfingers will continue in our next post!

Also see related posts:
> Mystery of a Moth Caterpillar
> When the Hunters Became the Hunted – Hunters & Collectors
> Seeing Double
> Snake Tales

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

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.

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…

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!

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…

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..

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

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?

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

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?

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…

..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!

Also see related posts:
> Seeing Double
> Humming to the Wrong Tune – Mistaken Identities #3
> Slow But Steady – World Turtle Day
> Changing Colours – Mistaken Identities #2
> Living in Cold Blood – Mistaken Identities #1
> Snake Tales
> Monkey See, Monkey Do
> The Web Crawler
> Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research
> Attaining Immortality – Body Preservation
> Life in the Mountain – Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia Trip #4

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

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….

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.

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!

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.

Also see related post:
> Private Lives: An Exposé of Singapore Mangroves
> Attaining Immortality – Body Preservation
> Touch No Evil
> Invasion of the Creepy Crawlies

Words of Caution (again..): The following post contains highly graphical imageries not suitable for those squeamish person….read at your own risk….

Just when I thought being able to hold a huge millipede and the largest cockroach was already quite something for me, what came next was totally unexpected…

Besides the many live specimens of creepy crawlies that we had to handle at the volunteer programme that Itchyfingers joined, we had to help prepare specimen of the dead ones too! Wow! I had seen insect specimens at museums and shops, photographed them and even owned one souvenir keychain with a mini scorpion specimen cast in resin, which I discarded later cos I thought it was a bit gross to keep. :p But to preserve an insect myself…! Totally unexpected!

We entered the room and on the table there was one small box of dead insects in individual plastic bags, all still damp after being thawed. There were big and small insects: a few beetles, a scorpion, butterflies and the hissing cockroaches! We were told to choose one dead insect each. Everyone hesitated for a moment before the lady in charge ‘reminded’ us to start choosing before we were left with no choice but to take the cockroaches…Wow! Immediately people started taking her ‘offer’…:p

For some unknown reason, I found myself immediately raising up my hand when the lady picked up this insect and asked anyone wanted it…

I think I kinda regretted it after taking it…looking at the size….:O

A Junge Nymph…a kinda stick insect

It was bigger than my hand!

After everyone had chosen an insect, the lady did a demo with a beetle. Eeeee….I was getting a bit sqeamish looking at it and gosh! the smell was not very pleasant either! I was so busy switching my camera between still picture and video mode that when she finished and told us to start cutting our insects, I was a bit lost at where to start…!

Luckily, I had grabbed a fellow volunteer earlier who was also feeling a bit grossed out to “share” the huge insect. Still, It took us a while to decide who would be making the cut…:O

Gosh! This thing certainly looked menacing! Look at the spiky thorns!
These were supposed to minic thorny vegetation

Ok, enough of being courteous…or as they always said, “ladies first”. Looking at my fellow male volunteer, who didn’t even dare to sit down to be close to the insect, I took a deep breathe…Ok!! Tisu Girl shall do it! :O

Flipped it over!

It looked as if it was struggling, shouting for help….if only it was alive…

Eeeek! The mouth part looked so strange!

Ok, I took over the scalpel. “Er, cut where?”

“Just cut vertically”, my fellow volunteer replied ‘helpfully’…

I had a nasty injury on my thumb that morning. So clumsily, I made a gently cut. Nothing happen. Thought a scalpel is supposed to be so sharp that it could cut through easily…..I tried again, this time with a little bit more force…and then passed the scalpel to my fellow volunteer to cut horizontally so as to create a flap to empty the stuff inside…

See! A big guy staying on his foot so as not to get too close for comfort
with the insect, nevermind that it was dead and won’t bite back! Aiyo!

Ok, I survived the cutting part, which was not so bad. The next thing that almost took our breathe away was the smell! I couldn’t really describe the smell, but it was certainly quite horrible! And we were not the only ones cutting insects. There were at least six more volunteers sitting in the room cutting different kinds of insects of different sizes! It was so bad that the lady in charge had to spray air refresher a few times throughout the session!

Next come the cleaning of the insect. Using whatever limited and unsuitable tools left, we had to scoop and dig out the guts and whatever sh*t inside so that it would not rot and destroy the finished specimen. I sweared it was really gross having to do this part! And since our insect was such a HUGE one, it was like digging never ending! The stuff inside were mostly creamy colour, so I couldn’t help feeling it was like some kind of food people eat that were wrapped in maybe banana leaf or even crabs, where you had to scrap every bit of the content to savour it! Wow! Gross!

Nothing really suitable for digging and scooping the gross stuff effectively…

Then while we were taking turns digging and complaining why was it so tough to clear the stuff, suddenly I dug out something dark in colour. “Eeee, what’s this???” I exclaimed…and I dug out one, two, three…oh goodness…! What were these??? :O

“Eggs!”

I dun remember who said that. Eeeee! Yeeeks! She still had eggs in her body!

Wow lao! Si bay suay leh! Dunnu why I so itchy fingers chose this
Jungle Nymph to cut!

My fellow volunteers across the room sent me their utmost sincere sympathy…

More eggs…:O

Hearing our ‘misfortune’, my fellow senior volunteer came to give us a helping hand. He took over the half emptied (or so we thought…) insect and skilfully dug really deep inside towards the thorax. When he took it out, me and my fellow volunteer looked at each other, totally wide eyed….I wanted to puke…:O

Eeee…dunnu what was this! Looked like some organ thingy…

Arrrgh…! No choice lor! Already started had to finish it off! So grumpily, the two of us took turns again to continue digging, scooping, pulling and checking if there were anymore gross stuff left to clean…The other folks were already starting to pin down their insects…

When we were quite sure that what could be cleaned was done and with confirmation from the lady in charge, we took some cotton wool to clean and then stuff into the body before injecting some formalin to preserve it. To conceal the cut, we had to glue it carefully. Next, we had to use hairdryer to dry it since we couldn’t afford the time to sun dry it.

Ha! My fellow volunteer finally handled the insect with his hands!
Looked like voodoo doll hor? :p

I took a break while he tried pinning the fella down, to kay poh around the room on how was everyone else doing. Wow, not bad leh!

Wow! Can open up wings! Wow, how come we din get to use gloves…?
Less gross….

The male Rhinoceros Beetle

Another Rhinoceros Beetle without opening up the wings

The only scorpion available that day

An incomplete specimen of a Dragon headed Katydid

So after spying around, I went back and told my fellow volunteer that we should try to open up our Jungle Nymph’s small wings. Being Itchyfingers, I tried to make the antennae neater without thinking that it was already dry and stiff and hor, ended up breaking it! :O

Two greenhorns in green tees frantically trying to stick back the broken
antenna of a green fella…

Done!

Yeah! I did this!

Actually we had to sun dry the specimen for few days to make sure they were completely dried up before putting up for display. But no one wanted to bring them home to do it except one senior volunteer who drove. Imagine bringing the huge nymph home….! Think my mother would start screaming…:O

Some of our prized collection…haha…someone actually did the hissing
cockroaches! :O

Here’s a video of the Jungle Nymph. I think I prefer it alive…hahah…:D

Also see related posts:
> Touch No Evil
> Invasion of the Creepy Crawlies
> Sleepless in Siam – Bangkok, Thailand Trip #2

A lot of people have some inborn fear, phobia or even hatred for the creepy crawlies, especially those which are considered pests in our homes, the most notorious being the cockroaches. I too, have such fear for cockroaches. They are dirty and look disgusting with hairy legs and two antennae sticking out, constantly fiddling around…and when they fly….eeeeek! You dunnu whether they are gonna land on your face or not! The thought of them turns me off! :O

But come to think of it, why are human so afraid of something so much smaller in size? It just doesn’t make sense…hahaha…The hate or dislike for them is quite understandable though, cos many carry diseases and some are even poisonous.

As a nature lover, generally I do not detest these creepy crawlies (other than cockroaches!) cos some of them are actually quite beautiful to look at. :p

At a recent volunteer programme that Itchyfingers joined, I had the chance to have a closer contact with some of these creatures. How close leh ? To help overcome our fear of these creepy crawlies, we were asked to hold them in our hands. :O Well, it also gave us a chance to better observe these guys up close and personal…

Most of us had no problem handling or at least taking over the stick insect from another person’s hand, probably cos it is not something portrayed as fearsome or threatening. For me, I find them so amazing, having encountered them about three times in the wild. They are so well camouflaged among the twigs and you really have to be lucky and sharp-eyed in order to spot them!

The caterpillar of the Common Tree Nymph butterfly was another crawlies we had to handle. These guys have long and pointed spike like things on the body that look very menacing but in actual fact they are not poisonous. The black and white stripes merely advertise to potential predators that they do not taste very good. 

Hee…he’s actually very soft to touch! Matches my shirt too!

Other crawlies that we had a chance to touch or hold include this one: it is always thought that they have milllion legs but in actual fact each of these guys have about less than 700 legs. If you have the time and patience, you can count the number of segments on its body, as each segment carries two pairs of legs. Yes…you guessed it….it’s the MILLIPEDE! :O

Arrrgh! I actually let it crawl on the back of my hand…feels itchy with 
so many legs crawling around…

Millipedes will roll up into a ball when threatened to protect their soft legs. With so many of us taking turns holding it, I think it got fed up and decided to give us some present! When they are continuously disturbed, they will secrete a foul and poisonous substance called the Cyanide through pores on the side of their body. A small amount is not harmful to the human though, but we had to wash away the yellow stain. :p It is best not to handle a millepede next time you see it in the wild, cos some people may be allergic to it!

Ok, I thought it was quite an achievement for me to handle a millipede liao. But what came next was even worse! When we were shown and told to handle these, everyone, including the guys, ran to the back of the queue, trying to escape! So what was it that had such a great effect on everyone?? 

It’s the COCKROACH! :O (HELLLLLLLLP!!!!!!)

Ok, it’s not the usual American Cockroach or German Cockroach commonly found in our urban dwellings. It is supposed to be a “clean” cockroach, cos it feeds on dead leaves in the forests of Madagascar. But hor, it is still a COCKROACH! And it is the largest cockroach some more! :O 

The fact that the whole glass tank was filled with these Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches reminded me of Fear Factors. It was really funny to see the expression of everyone. No one wanted to be the first to hold one…The senior volunteers had to resort to coaxing and persuading, showing us the ‘proper’ way of holding. “Just imagine you are holding a hash brown.” My goodness! Eventually one brave guy plunged the courage and took one in his hand! :O But he threw it back almost immediately! Hahaha….Then there were people who needed to stare very hard at the tank ‘choosing’ the most inactive and “senile” ones to hold. In the meantime, another lady managed to grab one! Then another guy also succeeded and decided to pass it around to people who couldn’t bear to catch one themselves. By this time my legs were shaking and felt so grossed out cos whether it’s clean or not, the fact that the name has a ‘Cockroach’ in it is really scary and disgusting! I wondered how my two female friends could keep these as PETS! So disgusted at the thought of cockroaches as pets that whenever I saw them I would always ask if the roaches were dead liao or not! Hahaha….and now….I was asked to grab them! Eeeeee!

After some dilly-dally, I finally gave in to the ‘kind offer’ of putting one of the hissing guys onto my palm! I wanted to throw it away but my fellow volunteer wanted to take a picture. Arrrrggggh! Hurry Up!

I can’t believe I actually did this! :O Someone help me!!!!! :O People 
behind me were still trying hard to grab one! 

Think I washed my hand really clean that day….

What an ordeal! :O

Also see related posts:
> Invasion of the Creepy Crawlies 
> Sleepless in Siam – Bangkok, Thailand Trip #2 

As mentioned before, our last trip to Fraser’s Hill was not very fruitful in terms of the number of bird species seen. Many birds were not seen this time round for whatever reasons I do not know, even the team from Singapore that came out first for the bird race had only over 70 bird species on their list. Certainly hope it was not a sign of declining bird species due to global warming.

Anyway, walking and driving around looking for birds, I was hoping to be able to see my four legged shelled friend again. Years ago, when we weren’t driven up the hill by friends and had to walk around the whole Fraser’s Hill, we had a very surprise encounter. Tired from all the walking up and down with binoculars, spotting scope and my bag, I was lagging behind when Tisu Boy suddenly shouted to me, “or gui!” (hokkien for turtle) Immediately I ran towards him and I couldn’t believe my eyes! What a luck!

It was really an ‘or gui’ ! And not any ‘or gui’ but a real ’sua gu’!
(hokkien for “mountain tortoise”, a term used to describe a country
pumpkin or ignorant person):-D In this case, it was a ’sua gu’ cos
it stayed in the mountain! Hahah…:-D

Crawling in the shallow drain at the side of the road

I know I shouldn’t be touching wild life…but being a tortoise and turtle
fanatic, I couldn’t help it…:P This cutie should be the Asian Brown Tortoise

There was something on top of his head, and I thought it was just a fruit that landed and stayed there. So when I petted him, I tried to flick it away. But the soft ‘fruit’ didn’t move. It was only now that Tisu Boy, through his camera lens, noticed that the ‘fruit’ had legs on it! :O

Oh my goodness! The ‘fruit’ turned out to be a humongous tick! Or maybe it was bloated after its blood meal? The poor turtle had such difficulty trying to withdraw his head into the shell! Wonder if it was painful or itchy? I wanted to remove the tick by force, but was not sure if it would hurt Brownie or not; or if he would continue to bleed like in the case of a leech bite.

See the legs of the tick? Evil looking fella…

He was crawling in the middle of the road where cars often passed by, so definitely it was not a good idea to leave him there. As he was not really alarmed by our presence, we took some time observing and taking pictures of him. We didn’t notice at that point of time, but upon scrutinising the photos later back home, we were shocked to find more ticks on poor Brownie’s foreleg!!

Can you spot those blood suckers from the photo above?

A total of five evil ticks just from this angle! I wonder if other parts of
the body had more?

In the end, we decided not to pull out the evil tick and hoped it would, like a leech, drop off after it had its fill. But I couldn’t just leave Brownie behind and decided to move him back to where he should belong.

Tisu Girl to the rescue…wow, Brownie was heavy…As if he understood
my intention, he didn’t struggle

And back to where he came from, down the valley into the woods…

Also see related post:
> Tick, Twitch and Snap! – Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia Trip #3
> Racing Above Sea Level – Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia Trip #2
> An Escape Into the Mountains – Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia Trip #1

This school holiday, three shopping centres had been invaded by all sorts of creepy crawlies and kids were seen screaming and running about…

But they were not screaming out of fear, rather, in excitement cos they were all having fun interacting and taking pictures with the huge models of insects.

Huge model of the Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator) with tail
arching over its head, ready to strike when threatened

The Singapore Science Centre is reaching out to kids and adults by going to the shopping malls. The event, X-ploring Garden Crawlies, will allow participants to learn more about insects and other garden creatures.

See the Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus) spinning and wrapping its prey!

Try your hands at moving the robotic spider

Besides these huge models, there were also some specimens of different kinds of bugs. Some of them were very colourful.

A flower beetle

The Weevil or Snout Beetle. This one, a Leptopiinae sp., is from New Guinea

Another weevil, Eupholus benetti, also from New Guinea

I forgot to take down the name for this one, but its shape is something
I have never seen before

A wasp of the Chlorion sp

A kinda beetle, Chrysochroa purpureiventris, is from Indonesia

It was a good move to bring the exhibition to the malls, judging from the response from people of all age group. But I thought it would be better if more local species were to be highlighted. Children were encouraged to visit the exhibits at all three malls and complete an activity booklet for a small gift. The last day for the event will be 11 June, so try to make a date with the bugs and discover more about these important creatures in the ecosystem!

We checked into the same hotel as our last trip nearly two and a half years back. Had thought their room was decent, the price was reasonable and it was located in the middle of Sukhumvit, which was quite a happening place. The only bad thing was that it was quite a distance to walk in from the Na Na Skytrain station, especially after a whole day of walking under the hot and humid weather condition. So normally I would have no problem sleeping during travel but this night was different…

Half way through the night I was awaken by this terrible itch on my right arm. Itchy fingers as usual, I scratched all over it and to my horror, there were not one or two big bumps but almost more than ten to twelve spreading all over my right arm and shoulder! “Shouldn’t be mossies right?”, I told myself, cos I was all covered up and would probably be awaken by the annoying pests.

My “souvenirs”…

The itch was terrible, and I soon realised that my ear, the back of the neck and my collarbone areas were not spared either. It was then that I realised that it should be the bed bugs having a feast!

See the red bump on my ear? It was one of the most terrible bite! Very very itchy!

I quickly jumped off the bed to check for any bugs but couldn’t find any…my bed look innocently clean and hygiene…either the bugs were too tiny to be seen or had fled for another victim. But I remembered reading on the paper about an old woman living in a house infested with bed bugs and they were clearly visible to the eyes cos the photo showed big black patches of bugs! The thought of that just grossed me out…:( It was then that my friend KG also woke up and complained about neck bites…

I was lucky to have brought along medicated oil to relieve the itch slightly. Maybe the smell of oil prevented further invasion from the bugs cos I was being left alone for the rest of the night. But I was feeling too itchy and traumatised to sleep anymore…

The next morning we went down to the reception to complain about the evil bugs…I even wore short sleeves shirt as it would be easier to show them the “evidences”…(No lah, we were going to Chatuchak Market which would be HOT HOT HOT!) Actually not really complain lah, we just asked if they could change the mattress, pillows and bedsheets and hopefully the rest of the nights would be ok lor. The ladies at the reception took a look at my arm and merely gave a “ohhh” expression and then they offered to change us a room. Gosh. Obviously it was not the first time they got complains about bed bugs!

So back home I did a bit of reading up online about the bed bugs. According to Wikipedia, “bed bugs are nocturnal creatures. The adults are a reddish brown, flattened, oval and wingless. A common misconception is that they are not visible to the naked eye. Adults grow to 4 to 5 mm (one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch) in length and do not move quickly enough to escape the notice of an attentive observer.” But some site says “When disturbed, bed bugs actively seek shelter in dark cracks and crevices.” So that’s why we couldn’t find any trace of them! Attracted by warmth, they pierce through the skin of its host with two hollow tubes – one injecting its saliva, which contains anticoagulants (so as to get free flow of warm blood) and anesthetics (so the host would not feel any pain and continue to sleep like a pig!) while the other withdraws blood from the host (victim lah! that’s ME! :O ) After feeding for about five minutes, the bug returns to its hiding place. The bites cannot usually be felt until some minutes or hours later. The severe itch can last from hours to days. Wow, I was feeling itchy throughout my whole stay in Bangkok!

Now I just hope that I won’t be left with more ugly marks and scars!

Also see related posts:
> Natural Instant Breast Enhancement – Bangkok, Thailand Trip #1