Spidey Snail

It was on that evening on the road by the edge of a rainforest, I was trying my luck to look for the Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) to photograph. Somehow, something caught my attention. It was just a small whitish leaf-like about two centimeters suspending in the air and it was moving a little. Oh well... just a leaf, probably. Or maybe it could be a spider??? Let's check it out.

As I got closer, I was very amazed to see this.

  

Click on for a closer look.

This is not the best shot... but can you see the strand of mucus?

What I was seeing for my first time was this snail climbing downwards by using its own mucus which looks like a thread made by a spider. As I was attempting to take a closer shot of this delicate creature, it somehow landed on my camera lens. And the strand of mucus stopped at about less than 1 meter above the ground. Gee... I think I "did" it again...sorry snail for ruining your journey. Anyway, I gave it a free ride down by placing it on the ground. I hope it is happy on that spot.

Hey JK of SiputKuning Journal, this post is specially for you! Also require your expertise to tell us more about this wonderful snail. Cheers, mate!

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New Life On The New Year Eve

A lot of cicada species found in our region here usually produce high frequencies. They are so loud and yet it is difficult to spot them. When they sensed your presence, they usually take off in flight. Unless they peed, then it will be easy to spot them. Attempting to spot a cicada on a tree is like a one in million chance, what about seeing a cicada coming out of its shell then? One in a trillion chance??

On the note,  in some countries cicadas can be spotted easily when they are out periodically. 

That night was my last evening nature walk for the year 2011. Shining that torch around and this little critter on a tree caught my eyes. At that moment, it has emerged more than half way out of its exoskeleton. It didn't move at the beginning and when we got near it to have a closer look, it was twitching as if it was struggling hard to come out.  

Another half way more to come out

I rounded up my walk and decided to return to that same spot to witness the rest of the wonderful event. The second part of the event was recorded about twenty minutes after the first shot. 

"Look ma... I can do the upside down thing"

Notice how this cicada did its first "sit-up" exercise. Looks like it has used tremendous strength to do this exercise. 

Thank you for being patient with this shaky video. While videoing this amazing event, I had to balance with a big torchlight on one hand and my camera on the other. p/s: if you like this, click LIKE :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Cicada! 

This cicada was transformed on the eve of 2012. Unlike those robotic Transformers, this cicada transformed very, very slowly. I am not sure how long the whole process took because I was not there from the beginning.

Could this be a symbolic event for me? Or a symbolic in nature? Whatever it is, I cannot help to ponder if this could be a sign or something. A new hope for conservation? I do hope that this is for real and yet I strongly feel the conservation efforts on Langkawi is diminishing. With the upcoming development of resorts, hotels, another port and uncontrollable illegal poaching on Langkawi, the preservation of her natural heritage does not seem promising at all. Not even the NGO here can protect her. Alright, enough of my yakkety yak on conservation issues for this post.

On a happy note, this live event was meant for me to witness and I was so thrill that I have to share this to everyone. This blog post is dedicated to all my blog followers, readers, supporters and nature lovers. 

May the Force and the Blessing of Eywa continues to guard our precious Rainforest and her biodiversity. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012! 

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My Darlings Of Langkawi

These are the little treats that made my day on a hard day's work...

Giant Squirrel (Ratufa Bicolor)

What was this Giant Squirrel doing?

It was stunned when I shot it with my camera and so it dropped the fruit that it was eating.  Observe the pose of its little hands. Later, it ignored me. I learnt later that it was feeding on the fruits of a notorious poisonous Rengas tree. Do not touch any of the tree's opened fruits or the sap unless you want to be a Puff Daddy.

Fruits of a Rengas Tree

My other darlings... the quiet ones

Colugo female with her baby

... my shy ones, the Dusky Leaf Monkeys (Trachypithecus obscurus)

Taking a break in between feeding time

... last but not least, this is one of my favourite creepy crawly 

Doria's Spiny Spider (Gasteracantha doriae) Simon 1877

Thank you my Darlings... as you are all perfect and it is much better than a mug of beer after a hard day's work!

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A Perfect Daily Ritual - Earth Day

Peeping through the window of my concrete wall

Where the sunlight creeps through the gap of the solid wall

Watching the greeneries and the daily perfect ritual for me

Would be greeting the trees of life that stand tall in front of me

These big trees may be our awe and admiration

However, even a small and shy plant like this also desires our attention

Do you think that we are the only ones that perform the perfect ritual?

Go see how a happy bird greets the day by flapping its wing to do its perfect ritual  

Standing amidst the rainforest,

It is a gentle reminder for us that no matter how big and smart we think we are, 

In fact, what a tiny wee speck of creatures crawling on Earth we are...

Do you think life is full of waste?

Yes, sometimes because we are the ones that produced that whole lot of waste

Go watch a dung beetle

Isn't it delightful to see it happily rolls the shit 

and helps to keep the surrounding neat?

Do you think our life is complex?

Yes, at times. 

Go stare and wonder at the web of life 

That interconnects with the entire network of our Earth's living force

Which one is more complex?

From this moment and till the day I die
I want to savour all these moments
Even if my spirit is soaring high in the sky
I still want to savour all these moments

HAPPY EARTH DAY today and everyday to my fellow readers and blog followers!

I love this bit taken from James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide written by Maria Wilhelm and Dirk Mathison:

"The armies of greed lay waste to the Earth and all its creatures. In our hunger for energy-for more and more-we've devastated our planet. We're neck-deep in festering industrial muck, in a trash heap of ever-expanding waste and decay. Overpopulation, overdevelopment, nuclear terrorism, environmental warfare, radiation leakage from power plants and waste dumps, toxic runoff, air pollution, deforestation, global warming, ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity through extinction... our once blue-green and beauteous Earth is now a terminal cesspool - an oozing wound cut deep into the face of the universe. Dollar for dollor (Ringgit for Ringgit), we've bought our extinction." - Avatar, An Activist Survival Guide book

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Caught Napping

Have you ever seen a monkey taking an afternoon snooze?

At 4:00pm, this group of Dusky Leaf Monkeys (Trachypithecus obscurus) were relaxing at the front porch of a resort along Jalan Teluk Datai  and then two of them started to fall asleep...

Their zzz postures...

I didn't know that monkeys take afternoon naps like I do. They were so adorable!

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Who Is This Peek-A-Boo Reptile?

This beautiful little reptile was trying to evade our cameras while slithering in between the leaf litters and twigs.

Peek-a-boo

What is this species?

I don't know - yet. After having checked my new book, "A Field Guide to the Reptiles of South-East Asia" by Indraneil Das, I can closely match this species to be a keelback snake belonging to the subfamily of Natricidae, however, I am not sure of its genus. Or this snake may be a different family. This field guide is colourfully illustrated and was published in 2010.

Location found: Lubuk Semilang Forest, Langkawi

Forest type: :Lowland Rainforest (less than 200m asl)

Length (TL): Between 70-80cm (estimation only)

Can anyone please help to confirm this species of snake? Thank you.... pppsssssttt...

Dorsal view

Lateral view

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Who is this Pretty "Roachie" Roach?

Is there any relationship between this pretty "roachie" roach 

and this picture below?

I am not too sure. My guess would be the patterns on the cockroach and the dress the painted man was wearing have some similarities. The image was an artist's impression of a Harlequin painted by Maurice Sand in 1761. The image above was taken from Wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin

Who and what is Harlequin? According to dictionary.reference.com and Online Etymology; this is what it has written as:  

1590, from M.Fr. harlequin, from O.Fr. Herlequin, Hellequin, etc., leader of la maisnie Hellequin, a troop of demons who rode the night air on horses. He corresponds to O.E. Herla cyning "King Herla," mythical character sometimes identified as Woden; possibly also the same as the Ger. Erlkönig "Elf King" of the Goethe poem. Sometimes also associated with Herrequin, 9c. count of Boulogne, who was proverbially wicked. In Eng. pantomime, a mute character who carries a magic wand. His It. form, arlecchino, is one of the stock characters of commedia del'arte. From his ludicrous dress comes the Eng. meaning "particolored" (1779).

In the Oxford dictionary, harlequin means either in various colours or pantomime character in mask and parti-coloured costumes. Hmm... I had learnt a new word.

So, the mystery of this pretty "roachie" roach has now been identified. It is a Harlequin Cockroach (Neostylopyga Rhombifolia) and unfortunately it is a domestic pest. It is believe to be originated from tropics of Asia. The female carries her ootheca (egg case) for a certain period of time before depositing it. I wonder if she will glue the egg case on an object like the female of American cockroach (Periplaneta americana)??

Professor Joseph Kunkel of University of Massachusetts Amherst directed me to Dr George Beccaloni, a curator of orthopteroidea from The Natural History Museum, London who had helped me on the identification and confirmed the facts on this species of cockroach.  

Many thanks to this two cockroach experts and their interesting articles website revealed the true facts of these wonderful cockroaches (well, some). After reading some of the facts, I now do have some respect to these primitive creatures or pests. However, my feelings toward the American Cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) remain unchanged. 

For anyone who is curious on varieties of cockroaches, you may find these interesting facts from:

1) Dr George Beccaloni's Blattodea Species File Online website and George Beccaloni's Article in Blattodea Culture Group

2) Professor Joseph Kunkel's Cockroach FAQ 

Happy reading and cockroach hunting. I will still think ten times about holding a cockroach with my bare fingers.

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Pretty "Roachie" Roach

I am sure that some of you have seen something like this: 

This creature's existence dated as far back as more than 280 million years. This female here was laying or carrying her egg case and believe it or not, this was my first time seeing such.

An interesting fact about these female cockroaches is that they only mate and pregnant once for the rest of their entire life cycle. Cockroaches usually live up to a year and varies depending on the species.

The egg sac or ootheca holds about 30 to 40 long, thin eggs all packed like frankfurters in a case. The egg hatches using combined pressure of the hatchlings gulping air and these initially bright white nymphs continue inflating themselves with air, becoming harder and darker within four hours.

Depending on the species of a female cockroach, she will retain the ootheca until it hatches , for example the German Cockroach (Blattella germanica). While other species, for eg. the American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana) female will not retain the ootheca for more than one day after formation and she will find a suitable hiding spot to drop and glue the ootheca until it hatches in 50-55 days. In my opinion, this American Cockroach is the ugliest cockroach that you can find commonly everywhere here. 

This picture of female cockroach is a much prettier one as compared to the common American   Cockroaches. She was spotted in the late morning and remained motionless on the the same spot for a few hours. As I looked closer only to realise her ootheca that she was carrying. Assistance needed to help id the exact species of this pretty cockroach...

All that you need to know about cockroaches can be found in Joe Kunkel's Cockroach FAQ.


Other interesting links on roaches:
Wikipedia Cockroach

http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/cockroaches.html
http://www.essortment.com/all/cockroachanthro_ryoa.htm

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A Snake Resident

Two days ago, I was feeling lazy and I had to push myself to do a few laps in the swimming pool of an apartment. This was because I didn't feel like doing a bike ride in the hot and sunny mid-morning. 

After my swim, I was out of the pool to dry myself. Not knowing what made me turned to the bushes below me, I noticed something white and slightly shiny under the reflection of the afternoon sun.

It was longish. I observed how that thing stretched itself, made sharp turns and rubbing on a thin branch to another. Ouch... I imagined it must be quite a painful process having to stretch itself out of that. It was already dried.

The black arrows are pointing at the turning points of each branch.

I have yet to see and feel a complete discarded snake skin with its head still intact. 

The head showing its eye caps

What did I do with it? I took it home, of course. With Mandy's help, we measured the discarded skin.

The discarded skin is about the length of 125cm from the tip of the head to the tip of the tail

My guess for this species of snake from its discarded skin may be a cobra from the family Elapidae (elapids).

This is interesting. 

Ecdysis is a process of skin shedding for reptiles, arthropods, insects, etc. A healthy snake usually will shed its skin in one entire piece with little or no difficulty at all. While sick snakes, those suffering from malnutrition will tend to shed their skins in pieces and this is known as Dysecdysis. 

A snake will be inactive for a period of 1-2 weeks and the eyes will turn dull and cloudy.  The duration of inactivity varies for different species. During this period, the snake's vision is impaired resulting in unpredictable and aggressive behavior. The underlying new skin is soft and vulnerable to damage. 

The snake will make use of any rough surfaces within its enclosure to shed the skin. The skin of the head will start first. 

Once the snake has shed its skin successfully, it usually defecate and will look for lots of water to drink. Hmmm... no wonder this discarded skin was found in the bush by the swimming pool. Oops!!

Another interesting fact, a discarded skin is not a reliable measure of its true length!

The above is a closed up picture of the discarded skin. What a beauty! No wonder homo sapiens love to make bags out of snake skins. Psst... by the way... there is a resort here that sells ladies' bags made out of cobras, pythons and water snakes. 

This discarded skin is now sitting in a glass jar together with silica gels  to absorb extra moisture. Thanks to the Tips on How to Preserve a Shed Snake Skin

References: http://www.talktothevet.com/ARTICLES/REPTILES/snakeshedding.HTM; http://www.dfs-pet-blog.com/2009/11/snake-skin-shedding/; http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=17+1831&aid=1648

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Lucky Bat, perhaps?

A rather early morning bike ride had led me to into the paddy field between Nyior Cabang and Ulu Melaka. I usually ride on the main road but this morning I was curious to check out the off-roads in between the paddy field area. About less than 200 meters, I arrived at the T-junction and I couldn't decide which turning to take. So, I stop to look at the pipit birds on the ground while two Mat Salleh cyclists came from the other direction. I watched them cycled away towards the main road and I decided to go where they were coming from. About 50 meters, I stopped at the funny looking flowering plant (left).

Soon after, I cycled for another 20 meters and saw the netting set up by the locals. I was silently condemning these netting and then I noticed something black was caught on the net. It was still moving and immediately I knew it was a bat.

I always had my rescue knife with me whenever I am at work and not today...grr..grr...grrr.. I only had a set of bicycle toolkit and that is useless for cutting the net. I tried a sharp rock, didn't work. I tried untangling the net very slowly and only managed one side of it. The other side was badly entangled. I decided to rip  the net around it with my bare hands. Finally I did and not feeling guilty at all in leaving a huge hole on the net. 

I saw a barn about 100 meters away and a car parked on the other direction. Instead, I decided to cycle towards the barn to look for something to cut the rest of the entangled net on one side of its wing. While still carrying the bat on one hand, suddenly I remembered I left my bicycle toolkit at the scene and decided to turn back. As I was turning back, I decided to get human help by cycling towards the car.

I noticed two old gentlemen (Pakciks) were crouching on the ground looking at the field. I asked them for a cutter and showed them the bat. Both of them didn't have any cutter and one of the pakcik wearing the white cap (kepah) took out his lighter. Ah, a smoker. Probably this is the only time I appreciate having a smoker around. He gently burn off the strings and looked like he had done this before. The bat was in pain and trying to bite when removing the last bit that wrapped around the bony joint of its wing. I had to hold the other side of its wing and pull its  head so the bat doesn't bite the finger of the helper.  

Finally, it was released! The bat hobbled on the ground for a couple of seconds before it took off into the air. We watched it flew away towards the hill until it was out of sight. Hope that this bat will survive after the struggling and exhaustion. I was so excited of its release that I didn't get to take the full picture of the bat. Aiya! oh well...

This bat is identified as a common fruit bat. The closest species I can identify is it may be  Short-nosed Fruit Bat (Cynopterus spp.). Fruit bats are important dispersers of many pioneer forest trees, thus aiding forest regeneration after disturbance. These fruit bats breed throughout the year in Malaysia, mainly when food is most abundant. 

Glad to know that are lovely local people around. These pakciks are the owners of the paddy field. After a quick chat with them, I thanked the bat saviour, particularly the pakcik on the left. I headed towards the barn and it was a good thing that I didn't go there because there were only cows inside.

Reference: A Photographic Guide to Mammals of South East Asia by Charles M.Francis

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A marine creature close to extinction in the waters of Tanjung Rhu, Langkawi

This is awesome! This was found on the beach of Tanjung Rhu yesterday! I got off the boat and spotted  this starfish in the water.

So, I picked it up to have a closer look.   

                                    

It had six long legs and two shorter ones.

Check out the size.

Below picture is showing the underside of the starfish. Notice the tube feet.

                                     

Here's a closer look at the tube feet. Check out the pointed tip. It was a poking feeling when I was holding it.                              

                                     

Not knowing much about starfish or sea stars, I did some search via the world wide web and found that it is very likely to be a Eight-armed Sea Star (Luidia maculata), a family of Luidiidae. This Eight-armed Sea star that I picked up with two shorter legs would very likely be a juvenile or sub-adult.

According to the locals, Tanjung Rhu once had a abundance of corals and sea stars many years ago. Those were the days before the five-star resorts were developed on this beach. A large amount of sand were dredged from the sea and thus reducing the population of these precious sea creatures eventually.

What did I do with this creature in the end? I got back to the boat and instructed my skipper to take me to the middle of the ocean. I said bye and dropped it there. I hope I did the right thing.

Read more about this from: Wikipedia, Eight-armed sea star of Singapore

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