Reign of Assassins

First time to the trail at Rifle Range Road to check out the critters! We did find a lot of subjects, but I was too slow to capture most of them. I did capture some very unique Assassin Bugs (Reduviidae) though, each looking very different from each other but all sporting the extra-long rostrum, which is their feeding pipe. The rostrum is also used to inject saliva to dissolve the insides of their prey before sucking it out.

#1 Nick was done shooting this fella and showed it to me and thought it was a stink bug. We mistook it for an assassin bug… eek..!

#2 This one looked like a wasp at first glance. Look closer and you’d find the elongated rostrum stabbed deep into an ant prey.

#3 This moth has an excellent camouflage and looks exactly like a dried leaf. I wasn’t able to get a top-view of this beauty as it flew away after this shot.

#4 A very thin weevil, remains motionless even as I touched the stalk and moved around. Weevils tend to play dead when predators approach, or even do a free fall from wherever they are so that it would be difficult for us to spot again. I had lost sight of many weevils this way, so whenever weevils are spotted, do have something at the bottom to catch it in case it decides to drop!

#5 A beautiful bronze coloured Tiger Beetle. I still haven’t found out the exact species of this guy yet, but it is also commonly found in some remote areas of NTU.

#6 Caterpillar munches til the end of the leaf and realizes that… THERE’S NO MORE!!!??

#7 With so many Assassin Bugs around, it pays to keep your eyes wide open even when under cover. This shy yet cute jumping spider is doing just that!

The complete album can be viewed here.

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