Asiatic Oak Weevil (Cyrtepictomus castaneus)

With a long snout, elbowed antennae and a body shape of a snail, it stands out amongst other insect.

This is my first encounter with this species of insect.
Belonging to the family of true weewils, it has more than 40,000 species worldwide.Touching it will make it play dead.

Generally considered as a pest it has made its way to America and has been listed as an invasive species.

Tiger Moth

A Tiger Moth, also called the Day-Flying Moth as they are active during the day, has about 11,000 species found all over the world belonging to the Arctiidae family of moths.

The specimen shown is one of the many species of Tiger moth.
They usually have bright colours as warning to predators that they are toxic.

Geometrid Moth (Dysphania Glaucescen)

Going by the common name of Geometrid moth in the order of Lepidoptera with the family name of Geomitridae, I find this particular species most interesting with its attractive colour and markings.

Members of this Order of moths consist of a large number of diverse families.
It is also a good subject for photography as during rest, this moth holds its wings in a flat plane, perpendicular to their body, even when disturbed it remains still and inactive.

A detailed study of the particular moth is found in the following site:

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2010/2010nis13-19.pdf

The Red Bug

Spotted this small attractive red bug flying around and it was kind enough to stop a while for me to take a few photos. I have not seen this type of insect before let us see what it is.

From the photo it looks like it belongs to the family Pyrrhocoridae (order Heteroptera), described as a plant feeding insect oval in shape and brightly coloured with red. It has also been reported for this species, Dimorphism can occur, a condition in which two or more visibly different forms exist.

That could maybe explain why it was not possible for me to match this particular specimen with photo identification available of more common species. Colour and slight variation of shapes was observed when compared.

If I had identified it correctly, this species is also known as Fire Bug. The red bug is considered as a pest in the coton industries, if present in the cotton being harvested would cause stains during further processing of cotton.

Unidentified Assassin Bugs

This are photos of Assassin bug that I just couldn’t seem to identify to which specific species it belongs to.

Basically, assassin bugs are members of the family Reduviidae in the order Hemiptera.

These small specimens in the photos show the many varieties of assassin bugs with different markings found in the Malaysian rain forest.

As previously described, assassin bugs has a short beak that sucks fluids from its victim after stabbing its prey with its proboscis and injecting a toxin that dissolves tissue. As such, handle them with utmost care their bites will be extremely painful.

Click Beetles

From the beetle family Elateridae, commonly called Click Beetles because its body has an unusual click mechanism when activated will produce a violent click which can bounce the beetle into the air. Its function is to escape from predators and also used for righting itself when it finds itself inadvertently on its back, due to its very short legs, without the clicking mechanism it would be difficult to right itself.

There is about 9300 species worldwide, so identifying which specific genus they are from would be challenging.

Click beetles have long, flat bodies and are masters of feigning death, where it can remain still for a long time pretending to be dead by merely touching it, which makes it an ideal subject for macro photography. They range in length from 1/4 in. to 4 in. Generally found in shades of black or brown, adults are usually nocturnal leaf-eaters.

Stick Insect

I had read and seen pictures of it but this is my first physical encounter with a Stick Insect, it was so well camouflage it would not surprise me if I had encountered it in the past but not took notice of it. It looks exactly like a twig and if this particular specimen wasn’t spook by me and attempted to fly off, I would not have seen it.

With a body shape that mimics the twigs of plants including matching its colors, it is among the best camouflaged of all creatures.

Stick insects are strictly vegetarians and feeds on leaves, generally nocturnal it would remain motionless, hidden under plants during the day. There is another variety of Stick insect that resembles a leaf, I am sure I will come across one someday.

Interesting facts about Stick Insects:
1. There are more than 3,000 types of Stick Insect identified worldwide.
2. Stick insects can reproduce without a mate and if there are no males, the females will lay eggs resulting in a population consisting entirely of females.
3. It has the ability of partial regeneration, for example regenerating a lost leg after several successive molts.
4. The Malaysian stick insect, Pharnacia serratipes, maturing to about 13 inches, is known to be the longest insect in the world

Flea beetles

Belonging to the leaf beetle family it is often seen, yes you guess right, on leaves feeding. They are small beetles and if not for their often bright attractive colors it would be difficult to spot them.

Observing them closer you will notice that their hindlegs are bigger which helps them to jump like a flea, hence the name Flea beetles.

Sometimes they are regarded as pest especially when they are found to attack agricultural crops as they feed on plants eating the various parts from leaves to stem.And when feeding on weeds they are considered beneficial, although I would think, what is a pest or not really depends on which perspective we choose to look from. To the flea beetle, all it was doing was eating something available to survive.

Assassin bug

Based on Scientific classification, Assassin bugs are members of the family Reduviidae in the true bug order Hemiptera

Living up to its common name of Assassin Bug, it is a predatory insect that has long-legs, normally exhibiting dark sinister colors, black, brownish or reddish complete with beady eyes and extended proboscis or some calls it rostrum, not a pleasant sight when magnified.

It can fly as witnessed by the author with very rapid wing movements albeit slowly.
Assassin bugs catches prey with a death grip, using its foreleg that in some species have sharp barbs that makes it difficult to escape, next the proboscis are then used to penetrate the prey injecting a potent digestive juice into the prey, paralyzing and killing the prey mercifully in a matter of seconds. The liquefied muscles and tissues of the prey are then sucked up much like us drinking water using a straw, a scenario befitting any horror movie.


But I think this is an efficient method of feeding where food is externally digested, avoiding the need for chewing and other necessities that goes with it. At the same time, I can imagine an accidental bite from them would be extremely painful, severely uncomfortable at the very least and requiring long healing time.

Found throughout the world, they are considered beneficial for insect pest control as generally their preferred food are insect that we considered as pest, like cockroaches, flies and termites.
Supposedly carnivorous but the specimen shown (Cosmolestes picticeps) is one species reported in Malaysia to also feed on nectar of flowers, this is of course not verifiable. There are also some other species reported that feeds on blood of mammals.