Anything that exists has a reason. Though most girls would not agree with me, bugs are cute animals, especially the flying cockroach. Whenever I walk in the jungle, I will try to look for bugs. Some bugs are colourful, some got many legs, some are soft, even some are poisonous.
Below is a photo of a Whip Scorpion (also known as Malay Scorpion). Look at its tail and you will know why it gets this name. To people who lives in Malaysia village, this is a common bug. If you walk near the wood of country side at night, you would see them. I don’t know what is the function of its whip (tail). Probably it uses it to whip its preys brutally until they die, so “SM”…
Moth is another bug that always amazes me. Don’t know if you still remember my photo of the moth that has Teddy Bear face on its wing? This one looks like a dry leaf. I guess it will evolve into a “real” leaf after million of years, since it likes to be a leaf so much.
When I was a little boy, I used to look for those small little grey Pill Millipedes (as small as a pea) under the rock. Once alert, they will roll their bodies into ball shape. They don’t have long legs, don’t have spikes, don’t have poison, don’t have foul smell, don’t have camouflage, etc. to escape from predators, but they are “live fossil” that successfully survive for billions of years. When they turn into a ball, they will look like a medicine pill, which doesn’t look delicious, so the predators are not interested in consuming them.
The Pill Millipede I saw in Tawau Hills Park is very big. This is the only “leggy” bug that I dare to touch so far. Touching centipede, tractor millipede, caterpillar…? No way..
Probably it was near to year end. The day turned totally dark very soon, and all the joggers have left. I was waiting for another 30 minutes on the hill top alone, so the place was cooling enough for the nocturnal animals to come out. Slowly I walked along the trail with the aid of torch light. Then I noticed something long crawling on the ground.
Carefully I moved closer to check it out coz I was not sure if it was a snake. It was a big tractor millipede more than 6-inches (15 cm) long. I know some millipedes can be quite big but I never expect to meet it in city region. It is very different from the small and red millipedes that are commonly seen in our garden. Its body is brown in color, and its legs and tentacle are yellow color. I know the ladies won’t agree with me, but I think it is cute.
Tractor Millipede got many common names. Chinese calls them “Ma Luk” (Hakka), train bug, hundred-leg, incense oil bug… Tractor Millipede usually has 70 to 300 legs, but that doesn’t help them to run fast. To protect themselves from the attack, they will roll their bodies then secrete something really stink.
Their smell is really really terrible. I remember the first time I sniff this bug, the stink was so strong that I jumped up and down and nearly puked. From there on, I didn’t eat dried shrimp for many years coz it looks like a disgusting millipede. Til now, I don’t dare to touch millipede.
To give you an idea how big this millipede is, I post two photos of two different millipedes, side by side below.
If you think it is really big, then you haven’t seen the 1-feet millipede in Kinabalu Park. I will post the photo of that giant millipede if I see one in the future.
Photos taken in Tun Fuad Stephens Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
Night jungle trekking is the most exciting activity of Uncle Tan’s adventure. The forest in the dark is a busy world. Our night safari started at 9 PM, the time where all the creepy creatures such as snakes, spiders, scorpion and centipedes come out to hunt for prey. Our camp area is both a jungle and a flood plain, so the forest floor is wet and muddy. We had to wear rubber boot.
Don’t touch the leaves and branches in the dark, as there might be something poisonous hiding in it. We were walking in the dark with torch light. To look for animals, just scan the surrounding with the torch light and look for the relection from animal’s eyes. From the colours of the eye reflection, you can tell what type of animal it is. I’m not sure if I remember correctly. Red colour is small mammals, green colour is snakes, white colour is spider.
We saw a lot of frogs. It is a good sign. That means there are plenty of bugs. If there are a lot of frogs, it will attract snakes. Too bad we didn’t see any snake that night. We found whip-tailed scorpions in the tree holes. The guide said if he caught a scorpion, he would put it on our hand. Yes, he meant it. This is part of the experience.
Our group moved slowly in the dark. The guide is really good in spotting animals. Sometimes you have to look above your head. We saw the big Ghost Spider. We also found birds such as Kingfisher and Heron. They rest motionless on the tree branches. They were so near that we could catch them by hand, but they didn’t flee, as long as we kept quietly. I tried to take more photos, so I was left behind the group a few times. I wish I could stay longer for more.
Leech is not so common there. I was bitten by leech before. They can crawl into your shoes without alerting you, until you feel a bit cold and itchy between your toes (leech sucking blood). They say you need to be “lucky” to get one there. Somehow the fear still made me felt that there was something crawling on my legs. Later a guide showed us a tiger leech he caught. Beautiful, isn’t it?
Another “exclusive” experience of this camp is to take shower with the river water. The water is pumped directly from the river. Its colour is a bit yellowish but consider clean. I used it to take shower and brush my teeth, just like other villagers living next to Kinabatangan River. Though I have a weak and sensitive stomach, I didn’t get sick. Of course, you have to filter and boil it before drinking.
Kinabalu Park is a heaven to nature and wildlife photographers. Every hour you would have new discovery or unexpected finding. Like a treasure hunt, it brings you excitement and satisfaction. I took hundreds of photos in 3 days, but they are not even enough to represent 0.0000001% of what we could find in Kinabalu Park. I categorise these 8 pages of photo album into 5 groups as below, and hope that you will enjoy watching them as I do. The pictures below are in low quality. You can check out the photo album for bigger and better photos.
The creepy, the weird, the slimy, the unknown… bug are all in these 2 pages. Most of them is active at night. Click Here to see more photos >>
The leech from Bukit Ular trail is only 0.5 inch (1 CM) long. After I removed it from my shoe, it just “stood” upright still on the ground, pointing to sky for minutes, like it was praying to God. Poor leech, in this cold day, I really hoped I could give him a few drops of blood and a warm jacket to put on. BTW, Kinabalu Park is also the best place to find big beetles.
Those plants live well in low-light condition under canopy. Some of them may carry secret ingredient that can cure the deadly diseases. They are such a potential precious asset that our government is very strict in controlling the export. I can’t identify most of the plant. Probably those who know can tell me what they are.
Day-shift rangers will tell you that it is rare to see snake, while night-shift rangers will tell you they see snakes every day. Most snakes show up at night. I consider I am quite lucky coz I see 4 snakes in Kinabalu Park. The green viper is only 1 foot long, but it is highly venomous. I saw them twice. The first time was in the grass next to the main road, near the hostel in the evening. When I took photos, those busybodies gathered around me and scared away the snake… The 3-feet brown snake below was found in Liwagu trail. It was hidding under the grass. I tried to use my walking stick to move it gently to open space for photography, but it escaped. Click Here to see more photos >>
One day later, seeing me busy searching around for snake at night, a ranger took out a mineral water bottle, which contains a small green viper inside, and asked me if I was interested in taking its photo (heck, wonder why he was carrying such a deadly snake around in his bag). The snake refused to go out. We used our torch light to light up the bottle, to make it moved to the opening (darker). It has a heat sensor near its nose and will not hesitate to strike if it senses any threat. Luckily, I managed to take a few photos.
The last snake I saw was near Balsam Cafe. This yellow snake saw me and crawled inside a burrow. Damn my stupid and slow camera that needs more than 3 seconds to focus in the dark, so I couldn’t get a good shot. It has a very small head and a few yellow stripes on its body.
Moths are everywhere, especially at night, and it has become an interesting “feature” of Kinabalu Park. They come with different size, shape, pattern and colours. For those scientists who look for many moth specimens and species, all they need to do is to sit under the street lamp at night and see hundreds of moth come to them. Click Here to see more photos >>
Pop Quiz: How do you differentiate a moth and a butterfly?
They both look alike. While roosted, the moth will open its wing, but butterfly will close its wing. I can easily get photos of hundred types of moth, but I picked only 24 good-looking or odd-looking moths for sharing here. Click Here to see more photos >>
“Killing you is as easy as killing an ant!” Many of you may have heard this familiar phrase in TV, movies and stories. One ant is weak, but a colony of ants is invincible and can kick our ass. Most predators don’t think messing with ants is such a wise idea. I was once stung by ant that has a stinger, and the awful pain with burning sensation still lives vividly in my memory.
Therefore, ant becomes an idol of bug’s world, and many bugs wish they are part of the ant gang. Even though they are not the ants, they can act like one and even look like one. This is known as Myrmecomorphy. Remember my blog about Ant-Mimicking Spider? I thought this spider had the most impressive ant disguise until I met the fellow below wandering in the forest ground of Tun Fuad Park.
You would say, “isn’t it an ant?” This was what I thought too. It walks like ant and looks like ant. It caught my attention coz it stayed still and motionless when I came near it. This ant appeared to be too smart coz it tried to cheat me, and it also seemed to observe my movement.
Until I left, I still didn’t know this was not a real ant. I took its pictures because I found the body structure of this ant was very strange. Return home, I opened the photos for closer look and found that it got something like a pair of small wings at its back (you can see it clearly if you click for the bigger photo below).
After comparing photos of 4 other ant species below, I am quite sure that I have seen another ant-mimic bug of Sabah. The antenna of real ants have a bend in the middle, but this bug doesn’t has any.
Real ant also has small waist that all girls wish to have. The waist of this bug is too fat. Other suspicious characteristics include the funny abdomen shape and absence of big jaws.
Later I did a search on the net. The closer match I could get is – this bug is a Beetle or Hemiptera. The amazing thing is – Ant-Mimic Bug only lives near the ants that they resemble to. For example, this bug is only found near the active area of grey ants that look like it. It will not try to mix with the red ants, black ants… somewhere else. How do they do that? They don’t even have a mirror… BTW, to find ant-mimic bug / spider, you need to look around the ant nest that has established for many years.
I believe this bug is the baby of the insect below:
Photos taken in Tun Fuad Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
This bug is really a good house builder. As you can see in the pictures below, it can bind three leaves tightly together without using hands. Most of this nest is found on rhizophora mangrove tree. Yes, you guess it right. It belongs to a caterpillar.
Until now I don’t know the species name of this beautiful caterpillar. Most likely it will turn into an ugly moth and fly stupidly into fire to end its life. I deeply concern they will go extinct coz Sabah uses more candles than other states, due to frequent power blackout.
While I was busy watching it, it used something look like “silk” from its mouth to build the nest. The picture below shows its semi-transparent body shined through by morning sunray. You also can see the hair on its body. My past experience told me not to touch it, as it would cause hours of unpleasant skin irritation.
Another shot of it. I was holding the leaf (and try not to let it crawl to my hand). I did a bit of stage setup, to make the photos look more artistic.
Photos taken in KK Wetland Centre, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
More weird creature brought to you by Smoke Head. I think you all have seen the slug (a.k.a. Running-Nose Bug. Named after its wet and mucous body), right? The normal slug is usually smooth and black in color. When I first saw it, I thought it was a snail that forgot to bring its shell.
Slug is one of the most hatred pests of the farmers coz it can wipe out the leaf vegetable overnight. To kill it, just pour a bit of salt on its body. Very soon, the osmosis process will suck the water and fluid out of its body, and murder it eventually.
The Mangrove Slug (Family Onchidiidae) is totally different. Its skin is rough and spiky. I wonder if this is the secret protection that enables them to crawl on the salty floor of mangrove forest. They are only about 1 inch (2.5cm) in length.
Guess what? They don’t eat leaf. During low tide, you can see them busy grazing above muddy ground and surface algae. Their brown skin color blend well into the soil and they move very slowly. So it is not easy to spot these tiny creatures. I discovered they could change color too.
This morning I saw about 10 of them resting in a small and exposed area, with part of their bodies immersed in the water. I thought they were all death coz their skin color was so pale (see picture below).
I used my fingers to touch their eyes and they contracted (still alive then). And most of them opened their anus fully. I stood there and waited, hoping to see something such as shit or egg came out. But nothing. After hour of sunbathe, their skin color back to normal then they moved to the dry and shaded area. Anyone can explain this behaviour?
Note: Whenever I find new info and photo, I would update my old blog. Just to let you know that I have added a few disgusting photos and video to my old blog entry named “Creepy Beauty”.
This bug got hundred of legs, but it is not a millipede and centipede. It is a good swimmer and live in swampy area. I saw it in KK Wetland Centre (formerly KK City Bird Sanctuary) and mentioned it in my blog before.
To know it better, I invite him out for an interview.
I stood in front of its burrow and shouted, “Good Morning, Mr Leggy!”
I believed he heard me but no response.
I shouted louder again, “Mr. Leggy. We have an appointment today. Shall we meet up?”
Again, no reply.
I was getting impatient, so I said, “If you don’t show up, I will not post your photos on MySabah.com!!!”
Then a faint voice came from the burrow, “Wait… I heard you the first time. I am still busy putting on my shoes!”
OK, here you go. The pictures of Mr. Leggy below. I think it got more legs than any centipede. Usually this bug is nearly black, with a bit of glossy blue or green color, and only a few inches long. But this one is 1 foot (30 cm) long and with metallic magenta color, I consider this one is quite rare (new species?). It is such a beauty.
When I saw it swimming, I thought it was a water snake. Some locals call it “Sea Earthworm” and use it as a bait for fishing. The photos below show that it got eyes and 4 “horns”.
Its appearance looks scary, but it doesn’t bite. Its body is so soft that it would break apart if you hold it with hand. I took a few pictures of it then let it went.
I also took a 25-second video clip when it swam in a container. In you are curious, CLICK HERE to Play the Video. I would like to find out its official and scientific name, but nobody is able to tell me. What it eat? Where it stay? How it live? I would like to know more. Please tell me if you know anything about it..
Updated (Dec 7, 06)
I found another kind of this bug, which I believe is another species. It is very similar with the one above in terms of body structure and size. The main difference is the head. This one has longer antenna and it is in black color, with a bit of dark blue. In fact, this species is more commonly seen in mangrove forest.
Last Tuesday morning I decided to explore deeper inside the mangrove forest. While resting, I saw a big worm crawled on the muddy surface. “Such a big earthworm!” I looked closer. No… It is that leggy bug again. Before that, I thought it was only active in the water since it is such a good swimmer.
You may CLICK HERE to Play the 20-sec Video that shows how it crawls. It tried to explore a burrow but was attacked by a crab inside. Warning! Viewer Discretion Advised.
Updated (Dec 12, 06)
Thanks to Dr Chris Glasby from Darwin, Australia. Below is the description of the identities of these 2 bugs:
Both ‘bugs’ are polychaete worms belonging to the family Nereididae.
Bug 1 is almost certainly Namalycastis abiuma, which is a species that prefers moist coastal areas like mangrove forests, coastal lagoons etc., and has a widespread distribution in the tropics and subtropics. It is unusual to see them in the open, as they prefer to hide amongst the rotting mangrove timbers, under rocks and other debris on, or near, the shore. Probably that is why they appear less common.
Bug 2 is more difficult to identify from your photos. Judging by its general features I would say it is Paraleonnates bolus, a species also quite commonly found in mangroves. These worms also occur in the mangroves forests of Darwin – and they can often be seen scavenging on the surface of the mangrove mud.
…it is also worth a note in a popular science journal, especially considering your nice pictures, and because ‘land’ polychaetes are quite rare and unusual.
