Termite Infestation!

This afternoon, I got a text from my daughter that her boyfriend's sister's room had been infested by termites! Not surprisingly, without a pause, she asked if I would like to have some!

Of course, I never say "No" to this kind of request. Just to be on the safe side, I asked her to get a few more, plus the wood that they had been feeding on.

"It is going to be an exciting evening", I thought.

Yes, indeed. Here are some photos of the cute termites, both the Coptotermes gestroi soldiers as well as workers. The termites are about 3.0mm long. Do enjoy, if you like termites!

The little termites are busy fellows, as they explore their new facility. Thanks to the safe method of containing them, the termites arrived at my home in good health.

Here, a worker (creamy-white) is seen "kissing" a fellow soldier. Actually, not. It is trying to move to the right when the soldier termite makes a left turn. When you are looking through a macro lens, you tend to see them as individuals, rather than a mass of termites.

The container that I used to keep them toppled over and some died as a result. I also did a few checks - non escaped! A soldier is seen here checking out a dead comrade. On the right is a worker.

A top-view of a soldier doing a scan of the area below.

Side view of the same soldier. This time it has decided that it is safe to make a down-hill trip from the original wood that it came from. The bottom-right object at the foreground is a grain of sand.

You can clearly see the fontanelle on the forehead of the soldier. A white latex-like droplet is often secreted from the fontanelle when challenged. An article from [https://taxo4254.wikispaces.com/Coptotermes+gestroi] mentions that the defensive secretion can represent up to almost 40% of the body weight!

The same soldier taking a long look.

A gathering of friends.

Two soldiers communicating with each other. What information could they be passing on?

Here, a soldier has a grain of sand stuck to its forehead, as a result of the defensive secretion earlier on. Notice the "glue-like" thing on its right pincer? The sticky stuff is supposed to act as a buffer zone between the soldiers and other attackers. Ants are their enemies and this sticky stuff will actually hold an unfortunate ant at bay while another soldier kills it off.

Finally, a sentinel standing guard.

American Cockroach - Once In A While

This evening an adult cockroach paid our home a visit. He was spotted flying into the boys' room by my daughter, and in a dramatic sort of way. You know, cockroaches don't fly nicely - they flap scarily all around, like trying to find someone's head to land. Very obviously, lots of screaming were heard.

Nevertheless, my elder son - who is currently serving in the NDU (Naval Diving Unit, Singapore) took care of it and presented me with the captured "periplaneta americana", an American cockroach. We do not get cockroaches often, either from the wild or internal-breeding as our home is well-kept by all of us.

Here are some shots of the insect that is widely considered as a pest, in all senses. Hope you will like it, at least the photos.

This particular, adventurous cockroach is about 45mm in length. I placed it in my photo-box that I made for insect photography (especially those that sneak into my home). Here, it is looking at me while I was adjusting my macro lens.

Although, it is considered as a pest, this cockroach certainly has a well-formed and neat body. A close-up view certainly gives us a better feel of its external structure. Just look at the lower segment of the neck! Like a set of goatee!

From the moment it was handed to me, this cockroach has never stopped cleaning itself. I observed that it can even clean its hind legs, up to the "thigh-joint". Now, that is a good show of flexibility, in spite of its longish body.

The cockroach is resting. Yes, it does that once in a while and then when it is done, it looks up and starts checking out the surrounding for a way to escape. After spending a few hours with him, it seems like we had become friends.

It is from here that we know this American cockroach is a male adult. Here you can see the presence of the cerci and styli. The cerci are the two longer (larger) appendages. The styli are the pair of smaller and delicate appendages appearing at the lower abdominal segment.

SUNDEWS - the carnivorous struggle

I was given a small pot of Drosera, also called common sundews, by my sister-in-law a few weeks ago. Sundew plants are carnivorous and so far this plant has trapped a few very tiny insects and made mince meat of them. One interesting fact from Wikipedia: They can achieve a lifespan of 50 years!

At other times, when too many milk ants invaded our kitchen, some of them would be thrown to this plant. But, this afternoon, something else happened.

A small spider, with length of about 2.0 mm from head to end of abdomen, accidentally touched the ever-reaching tentacles of these sundews. Garden spiders have been a good friend of mine as they prey on unwanted insects. Yes, my heart dropped. I spent a while observing how it is going to get itself out of hot soup.

It seems like its leg (1) and leg (2) have been glued into the tentacles. This is the first time that I actually see for myself how strong the sweet, sticky mucilage is. Tried as it did, the spider just could not pull its legs out of the stalked glands.

After a while of struggle, it takes a rest. Then it tries to turn outward and at the same time, pulls its legs. Nope, they are not coming out of the glue of death!

Here is looking at the situation from another angle. The spider has gone in a little bit forward, leading to a more precarious position than before.

Finally, with two legs trapped and the rest of its body outside, it just stopped. I believe it has expended all its energy and in due time it will die of starvation or exhaustion. Depending on what comes next, the sundews might just be able to lift the spider up and bring it deeper in for a fuller hold.

So, what I did was load a pair of tweezers with a small piece of tissue paper and use that to lift the spider up. Then I use another very damp tissue paper to dilute the sticky juice from the legs. Eventually, I put the spider down on a small cactus plant.

Did the spider make it? I think it did as a few minutes after I left it on the cactus plant, it disappeared. I certainly hope it makes it to its home, with all the limbs intact. 

By the way, I don't normally intervene in nature's progress. This one was an exception. Anyway, I was hoping for mosquitoes, fruit flies and the pesky milk ants.

Here is a picture of a fruit fly that met its doom. No way I could have saved this one. Truly a formidable organic "flypaper" trap.

New Birth - House Gecko from Changi Aviation Park

About 20 days ago, I was at my customer's premises at their work site office. A CCTV camera was down and we went over to see what the problem was. In the process, we did some clean up and as usual, the presence of house geckos (also known as house lizards) were plenty. Their droppings were present. And, they laid their eggs along the crevices of the false ceilings.

We cleared all of them, except for one that I brought home to monitor. Unfortunately, there were two days leading to today, that I did not monitor the egg. A baby gecko was born between this morning and two days ago.

Here are some photos I took. Do enjoy these sights of the baby house lizard!

House lizards are not cute, as far as my wife is concerned. But, this baby house lizard seems innocent and cute. Even then, it is a no-no to my wife. She won't want to touch it.

Here is the little one looking outside of the incubator, alongside its egg.

The egg is 8 mm by 9 mm in diameter. Its shell is hard and for a week after I got it back, I was wondering if the egg has even been fertilized at all! Fortunately, it turns out good.

Here is another angle of view between the baby house lizard and where it emerges from.

Here is a frontal shot. I looked at the underside of this house lizard and from what I get, it is a male gecko. So, it is a boy!

It is understood that house geckos are non-venomous and harmless to humans. The big ones are expected to bite if you handle them in a panicky manner - just like how they would chump on crickets and then proceed to swallow them whole. 

It was cleaning its face with its tongue, thus accounting for this open-mouth shot. Anyway, just look at the teeth of this baby.

Backyard MACRO

Well, I actually do not have a backyard per se, since I stay in a government-subsidised HDB flat. However, there is a PCN (Park Connector Network) about 80 meters from where my flat is located. I do my jogging here, and if I could not find time travelling afar, this would be a good place to look for miniscure insects and bugs for macro photography.

The best time to photograph insects is the upper part of the morning. Being cooler, they are much slower in making an attempt to move away. Here are some specimens, including plants, that crossed my path this morning.

This stigma has some pollen on it (I hope I got this part of the flower anatomy right). Imagine a tube growing from these pollen into the base of the style, and eventually the male gametes (sperm cells) start travelling down to fertilize the ovary. The marvels of nature.

This weaver ant, together with many others are guarding their portion of the service road, where a few bright-yellow flowers are located. Obviously, they are up to something and I have to be careful not to step on them.

A close-up of one of the worker ants. This one with its abdomen up is definitely gearing for a fight. I think it spotted my lens and is all ready to protect its food source at all cost.

Another weaver worker ant on a dry leaf coming by.

These two ants are actually having a meal of pollen! It seems like these pollen are really sweet.

Yes. You guess it right. They are cutting up this petal and feasting on the sweetness of the petal, and the pollen of the flowers. It is really amazing to see their co-operative spirit in making sure there is food on the "table"!

A tiny snail on an equally small leaf. This snail is about 2.5mm across. It is just lazing about. Not moving much. Not tilting as well. Just staying still.

Close-up of a  yellow creeping daisy flower. This flower is about 15mm across its petals. The stamens are about to open up completely. I just love seeing the intricate design of flowers.

Another great-looking yellow creeping daisy flower that is ready for the fertilization process. Here, we can see the anthers, as compared to the picture above.

A close-up of a flower from among the grasses on the grown.

Lynx spiders like to hide underneath leaves. This one is just across from another one that is twice its size. It is about 10mm from head to tip of the tail. Lynx spiders are known for being good hunters.

This looks like a meadow spittlebug. I am just guessing as I did not want to disturb it just to have a better view. A real tiny fellow, though.

Spider on a dried leaf.

A blooming flower.

A resting Genus Gesonia moth. The ends of the wings look beaten up but it can fly off quickly!

Mushrooms growing from a cut-off tree trunk. This trunk is fully covered by the cow grass and is largely unseen, unless one spreads the grass aside. 

The under layer of a fallen bark.

A Hemigraphis reptans. Such a pleasant-looking little flower. It seems to stay low at the ground.

Close-up of a false daisy (Eclipta Prostrata) flower. It is a species of plants in the sunflower family.

A dead mite? Since it is lying in mid-air, it was probably trapped and killed by a spider. The tree moss is already so tiny, so I suppose the web is so fine that it was not picked up in this shot.

The seed of the false daisy (Eclipta Prostrata). It sure looks like a small version of the lotus flower seed. It is about 6 mm in diameter.

This hoverfly was flying from one flower to another. I waited for it to make a circle back to the nearest flower and took this shot. This fly is about 5mm long.

Found this black snail in the undergrowth of a bed of little plants. It is about 4mm across its shell.

It is morning now, so one can still see the left-overs of the early dew.

I like the pattern of this fallen leaf. This one is found in a perceptually wet grass-area. There are lots of large yellow-band millipedes. If ever my pet wants to change its diet, I know where to get them!

Another pattern that attracts me. A damp but dried leaf.

Looks like a bronzeback tree snake trying to swallow a bloated toad. As I surveyed closer, there were ants running around the toad, and it was bloated up. A bronzeback is a non-venomous snake.