I went exploring at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR) on Friday, my first trip to this venue this year. Weekday trip is always a luxury as I get to avoid the weekend crowd. Although my field reports showed the last trip to BTNR to be in December 2012, I did visit the place 3 times last year after that date, except that I did not do any write up on those trips. Similarly, there will be no full trip report for this one since I had already done one for this month.

During the exploration, I had the chance to meet 3 different species of wasps. One of them had a white tip at the end of its abdomen and part of its antenna were also white. The next one was a spider wasp (likely to be an Episyron species) found attending to its prey on a leaf. The third one was also a spider wasp but much larger in size than the earlier two and with orange wings (Batozonellus annulatus). It was moving around on the forest floor, probably looking for spiders.

Without doubt, there must be many spiders in the forest except that they are really good in taking cover or camouflaging, making it difficult to spot them. Below were some of them seen on this trip (only those that I could get some decent pictures).

Nature always has a way to strike a balance between the predator and prey relationship. The supply of spiders may be plenty but the wasps will need to spend some time and effort looking for them. While doing so, the wasps are also the meals of other predators.