Dragons galore

Some of the beautiful tropical Dragonflies found during my hunt for birds...

These species I found near pool or lakes

Urothemis signata (male)
Common red color ones


Trithemis aurora (male)
red color with a violet thorax

At Paya Indah,Dengkil got this interesting dragonfly,
Rhyothemis phyllis (female)
read from somewhere, it is called a saddleback because of the colour on the broad hind wings.

Even in the jungle trails can see them

This beautiful metalic blue dragonfly perching on a spiny nipah leaves
Cratilla metallica (female)

also this orange and green coloured dragonfly
Lathrecista asiatica (female)

This dragonfly is almost invisible as it sit still on a tree trunk
Tyriobapta torrida (male)

This is how one dragonfly lays its egg (Ovipositing) in a pool of water..
. Orthetrum sp (female)
I just learn about this behavior from Tabib in Kemensah..

I tried to identify it from references in the internet, but I found it to be much harder than identifying birds.. ;) better leave it to the expert..

This blog seems to be a good reference for malaysian dragonflies
Odonata of Peninsular Malaysia

Update:Ian from odonata-malaysia have kindly identified the dragonflies here. Species names in italics

Termites Invasion

It has been a long time since I posted here... not that I don't go out birding. Just that my house have been invaded by termites.. So all my free time at home was spent hunting and eradicating this termites. So no time to do all the post processing at home, until all my CF cards are full.. and my HD full also...

Apart from moving my furniture around the room and brushing poison on the walls and furniture, i collect some and make an enclosure from a piece of plexiglass. From info from the internet. I put in a dampened termite infested particle board in it. However, because of high humidity,water droplets forms on the plexiglass making my attempt to take a picture harder.



The all whites are the workers..

Below are full frame picture of the soldiers, I dont know weather it is considered a 1:1 macro shot of not, the termites are 3-4mm in length.. The black bottom is because the light from the inbuilt flash was blocked by the lens combo. I just use a namecard as a diffuser to correct that.. hehe



well,watching this termites is a load of fun... more than rearing fish. can watch them eat wood, cleaning each other, creating tunnel and so on..

no food needed, just add water..

the hard part is keeping them in...after much trial and error, i got the ecologicaly friendly way..and thats my secret..

Is it only me,
mad enough too keep this pest?

Macro in Pandan Falls

When looking up, makes my neck strain or when see some interesting insect, I change to my Pentax 35mm F2.8 coupled with the panagor macro converter and shoot the said insect or flower whichever is the case.

At the top of the waterfall, a stick insect catches my eye, because it is on the rocks and almost got trampled by me. Another reason to watch where your feet are..

Here is it on the rocks.. as is


using kit lens..

using my macro setup, the stick insect head



this is how big the insect compared to a human arm



at the end of the hanging bridge, at one old tree stump, a colony of large forest termites was discovered



I estimate to be 10-12mm long, much bigger than a kerengge(A common large ant)

also a grasshopper seen at the same stump



At the site where we take a dip, an interesting damselfly keep popping at the water edge where waterflows above the rock.



how it kept itself from being dragged by the waterflow is intriguing.

Dari air ke udara/From water to air.

Ini gambar lama dari kamera 350d, pakai tamron 75-300 macro. Masa tu dah tengahari, jadi tak banyak burung.. jadi lepak tepi tasik layan pepatung..



baru menjelma dari air, sayang lens pinjaman ni aperture dia sangkut wide open. ingat nak capture kulit nymph dia kat belakang tu

try pakai focus braketing technic, 2 gambar jadikan satu untuk dapatkan DOF(depth of field) sebab DOF tamron ni wide open sgt nipis



nak tau pasal teknik ni kat sini

sambungan kepak


gambar penuh


dapat pulak tangkap masa dia terbang, tapi ini spesis pepatung merah..