Dragonflies & Other Critters at AMK Lotus Pond

Decided to go back to the lotus pond at Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West to take a look, and well, must say that again, it didn't disappoint me! :)

The lotuses were blooming as beautifully as before!



But well, today my purpose here was not just to look at the beautiful lotuses, but to look for the many dragonflies and other little animals.



The first type of dragonfly I spotted at the pond was this blue one, probably a Aethriamanta gracilis. Would say it's quite common since I've seen it at many places, though it looks almost identical to a bigger species, Brachydiplax chalybea, so I may be mixed up between the two.



If I remember correctly, this should be a Sabine’s Skimmer (Orthetrum sabina).



A red one here. Was it laying eggs? Hmm... thought usually the males are the ones with the brighter colours. Not sure of the species for this though.



When I was young, we used to call this "Red Auntie". It's a Neurothemis fluctuans.



Had a hard time trying to grab a shot of this female Macrodiplax cora, as it was resting in the middle of a bush taller than me.



Found several smaller dragonflies (Acisoma panorpoides) among the shorter bushes too. The above is probably a female one.



This is the male one... Saw it trying to mate with the female one in the previous photo.



Have no idea whether this is male or female though. It's green, in the middle of yellow (the female) and blue (the male)... Could it be... Hmm.... Haha... Guess it could be an immature male?



Hmm... not sure when the adult dragonfly will emerge from this...



There were lots of damselflies too, and they are actually close relatives of the dragonflies. The above is a male Agriocnemis femina.



This immature male Agriocnemis femina has caught a smaller insect in its jaws.



A very pretty red female Agriocnemis femina. Had a hard time getting a shot of it as well, as it kept flying around...



Another red female Agriocnemis femina, but the colour is not as brilliant.

There were also many butterflies, but as per always, it's really hard to take photos of them, and so I only managed to get a few shots.



Here's a really tiny one... Looks like the Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis lampa).



This is probably a Chocolate Pansy (Junonia hedonia). Poor thing, part of its wings were missing...



Wonder if a butterfly or a moth will emerge from this?



Also saw this pretty fly above on a lotus leaf.

Enough of the insects, how about some insect-feeders now?



The spider against the pond skater... I didn't stay lay enough to see what's the outcome though. Did the skater managed to escape, or perhaps the spider had no intention of catching it for dinner?



Saw quite a few of these stick-like spiders on the stems of the lotus leaves.



And not to forget the huge golden orb web spider (Nephila sp.). It may not be the biggest spider, but it makes one of the biggest and strongest web...



This toad suddenly jumped out of the grass below my hand when I was trying to take a shot of a dragonfly. Gave me quite a shock when it did that :P

Frankly speaking, didn't quite expect to see so many things around this little pond, as I didn't really explore much the last time I was here.

Had a hard time taking good photos though because my camera only comes with a 3x zoom, and many of the animals are on the lotus leaves in the middle of the pond. But still, it was a good trip! Definitely must find time to revisit it again :)

Exploring Semakau with Trainee Guides

Finally had our first Semakau trip of the year. I wasn't bringing a group of visitors though, but was bringing our new guides on a field trip to familiarise them with the route and the organisms we usually see on a guided walk.

Didn't have the time to take many photos when it was still bright as I had to quickly intoduce as many things as possible to the new guides before it got dark. Here are just some of the interesting things we saw among many others that wasn't photographed.



A synaptid sea cucumber, at least 1m long.



Found 2 noble volutes laying eggs.



The sandfish sea cucumber, which is edible, but must be properly processed first to remove the toxins.



Here's a strange little spider crab JL found. Looks somewhat like a sponge crab, but yet the shape of the pincers and legs looks a little different, so can't say for sure. Could be a different species. (Update: The crab is a Micippa philyra. Thanks LK for the info.)



Found the resident Haddon's carpet anemone, but noticed that it appeared to have actually shifted a little further south from its usual spot, and we also couldn't find the 2 resident anemone shrimps.



A hairy red hermit crab (probably Dardanus lagopodes) - one of the less commonly encountered hermit crabs on our intertidal areas. This hermit crab can be identified by its red to dark red exoskeleton covered with hairy spikes, a yellow band near its black cornea on each eye stalk, and yellow or pale green antenna.



A cute frogfish found by one of the trainees.



Found this marine spider on a colony of zoanthids. The smooth brownish stuff are actually encrusting sponges, rather than colonial ascidians that some of us had previously thought.



We found several conches today, including the pretty spider conch in the above photo.



Aslo found this huge ocellated sea cucumber in a tidal pool.



As it got darker, many little octopuses started appearing.



Found this pufferfish hiding among some seagrasses.



Many of the sponges had lots of tiny brittle stars living in them.



Another sea cucumber - the dragonfish.



And here's one of the fastest runner on the shore, a ghost crab.

Didn't include much details this time round as the trainees are supposed to do their own research for more information on the things we saw today :P

Anyway, other things we saw which I didn't managed to take any photos include the fiddler crabs, sand bubbler crabs, common sea stars, a gigantic carpet anemone with an ocellaris clownfish, turban snails, a polka-dot nudibranch, a chromodoris nudibranch, several marine flatworms, a giant clam, a stonefish sea cucumber, and lots of hard and soft corals etc etc. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any knobbly sea stars though, as the were so many sargassum seaweed that it's just impossible to search the area properly with the little time that we had.

Hopefully we'll be able to find them during our public walks :)

Special thanks to JL for helping out with the hunting-seeking, and also LK for organising this trip and the other volunteers for helping to seek things to show the new guides!