My experience collecting in Hong Kong and Malaysia

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Thanks for all the wishes! It was a fun trip. Although there were only 5 days of collecting out of the entire trip.

I want to thank Dinora and the Houston museum staffs here for caring for my mantis during my trip. Last year I have to get rid of all my Idolomantis, orchid, banded flower mantis, dead leaf, etc before the trip (which sadly never happened) :angry:

Ok here we go.

One would wonder where to find a park in the bustling city of Hong Kong, not mentioning the over population in this tiny region. Searching around the net (thanks google!) and with recommendation from friends, I have decided to go with Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve. The park consists of a mixture of reforestation and original forest. I had a chance to meet up with a bug fellow here name Colin who suggested this park.

This is the main entrtance to the park..... i was feeling tired just by looking at the slope :lol:

TaiPoKau1.jpg


Fighting jet-lag and tireness, I marched on with Colin.

climbingup.jpg


My son was right behind..... some other foreign jungle trekkers heading down, we must have been late! (it was around 11 AM)

Kennygoinguphill.jpg


Trees/vegitation along the trail

surrounding1.jpg


surrounding3.jpg


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Saw a hornet nest? hidden in the shrub along the trail

hornetnest.jpg


hornetnest1.jpg


After some time, we came across a sign board.

TaiPoKau2.jpg


Checking out where to go

checkingout2.jpg


To be continue.....

 
Continue walking up the hill and we finally reached the nature reserve area

surrounding2.jpg


The first mantis spotted appear to be of Hierodula sp. nymphs

HP1.jpg


We also spotted several walking sticks

stickinsect1.jpg


stickinsect4.jpg


Acromantis sp.

acromantis2.jpg


I accidentally stepped on a molting roach, not sure about the speices... ouch so sorry :(

roach1.jpg


A catepillar hiding wihin the flower

catepillaronflower.jpg


A huge ant

ant1.jpg


Spotted a wild bananas but it was all green. Can't find any cool bugs except for ants and spiders.

banana.jpg


 
I love walking/hiking on wooded trails like that. ;) It's very nice that they still have such places in those areas with such a high population of people!

The banana trees remind me of when I lived in Hawaii as a child. ^_^

 
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A Tenodera sp.

tenodera2.jpg


tenodera1.jpg


Creobroter sp

Creobroter2.jpg


Surrounding trees

tree1.jpg


All kinds of bug hiding in this tree, which grow some lime fruit. including the annoying mosquitoes! :angry:

tree.jpg


Acromantis sp

acromantis3.jpg


a big snail

snail.jpg


Lot of catepillars everywhere

catepillar2.jpg


catepillar3.jpg


Nymph of some bug?

bug2.jpg


 
It was starting to rain by the time reach half way to the trail. We decided to come back to the same place 3 days later. this time both my son and I wore long sleeves. yup the mosquitoes were taking advantage of me wearing short sleeve and pants previously.

meandkenny.jpg


Along the way there were a group of students reserching the bugs within the area.

learninggroup.jpg


Ah Odontomantis nymnph

antmantis2.jpg


An adult tiger beetle

winglesstigerbeetle.jpg


Another species of tiger beetle

tigerbeetle5.jpg


Tiger beetle here is very alert and will fly without hesitation. This one was eating a bug so i could move closer and take a snap

tigerbeetle2.jpg


A spider hugging the sign board

spider2.jpg


I sat my bag down and spotted a spider attacking a catepillar

spiderfeeding2.jpg


It still wouldn't let the catepillar go after dropping out from my bag

spiderfeeding5.jpg


There was also another spider feeding on a queen ant

spiderfeeding4.jpg


 
We spotted a few fast moving mantis nymphs which appear to look like Statilia sp. Further checking around the shrub we found this freshly hatched out ooth

hatchstatiliaooth1.jpg


I was trying to take pic of the hatchling but they were too fast. We also found another fresh unhatched ooth of possibly same species as the hatched on, it does look like the one of Statilia sp.

statiliaooth.jpg


This is one small Rhombodera sp adult. i think she was old and small, only about 6 cm.

rhombodera2.jpg


rhombodera3.jpg


We also spotted some nice roaches

roach2.jpg


roach1.jpg


roach3.jpg


bug?

bug1.jpg


Hierodula adult

Hierodula1.jpg


A camouflage moth

moth2.jpg


 
Milipede

milipede.jpg


Some kind of parasitic wasp?

parasitewasp.jpg


This time we walked further in along the trail

trail1.jpg


Surrounding

surrounding2.jpg


surrounding1.jpg


mushrooming

mushroom.jpg


pond full of tadpole

tapole.jpg


A weevil bug.. i can see my friend in the pic haha!

weevil.jpg


THere are actually quite some photographers in this area. Very professional. This guy was sitting there like a stature for hours trying to photograph a dragonfly. We saw him on the way and by the time we leave the park he is still there in his same position.... :blink:

photoshooting2.jpg


Few more photographers trying to get the best shot of nature

photoshooting1.jpg


 
Leptomantella sp nymph

leptomantella1.jpg


leptomantella2.jpg


More fern as we climb higher

plant1.jpg


This spider molt gave me the creep of the one similar to the movie in "Alien"

spidermolt.jpg


More tiger beetle

tigerbeetle4.jpg


tigerbeetle6.jpg


tigerbeetle3.jpg


Some fungus growing on wood

yellowfungus.jpg


A metallic beetle

beetle1.jpg


This one reminds me of stinky bug

bug3.jpg


 

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