Besides the egg-laying butterfly and its host plant that I shared last week, the park walk on 8 February yielded a number of other minibeasts.

Firstly, there were two other caterpillars sighted --- Common Mime (Chilasa clytia clytia) and Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon luctatius). These two caterpillars shared the same host plant, Wild Cinnamon (Cinnamomum iners). In this instance, 3 Common Mime and 2 Common Bluebottle caterpillars were spotted on the host plant in separate locations in the park. Sadly, the 3 Common Bluebottle caterpillars were gone a week later. Fortunately, the 2 Common Mime caterpillars were still around and had transformed to a different shade of colours. In addition, the eggs of the Common Mormon (Papilio polytes romulus) on the Pink Wampee (Clausena excavata) had hatched into tiny caterpillars.

Secondly, two types of ladybird beetles were very common in this park, Yellow Ladybird Beetle (Illeis koebelei) and Red Chilocorus (Chilocorus circumdatus). There was an elongated beetle that I suspected it to be a type of firefly. The other beetle was the tiny Ant-mimicking Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea). I had probably overlooked its presence in the past but since I started to know about it, spotting one became relatively easy. The last beetle was Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula). This particular beetle tends to appear in places when its host mushrooms are in season.

Thirdly, the other group of minibeasts sighted were the spiders and true bugs. The Black-and-White Spiny Spider (Gasteracantha kuhlii) was one spider that I had been trying hard to get a good picture. It is small and typically build its web in mid-air, making it hard to get a good focus with my camera. The Red Tent Spider (Cyrtophora unicolor) spins a complex web with significant depth. It then hide itself in a dried leaf hanging in the middle of the web. Getting close to it to take a picture without touching it web is a challenge. On the true bugs, the tiny dark and wired-looking fellow was a Flat Bug. The other one were the large Stink Bug (Pycanum rubens), both adults and nymph which were common sight in this park.

It might be true that they were many of minibeasts around the park. But, getting to see them was a different story. This was one of the rare walk that I got to see many of them. There were a few more that I had not displayed their pictures.