Sunday, June 12, 2011

Bug identification help sought!


Tiny insect spotted while hiking last Sunday
in Sai Kung East Country Park

A furry looking bug spotted hanging from
the back side of a bench on the same hike

A little more than a month ago, I put up an interesting looking bugs encountered while hiking blog entry. At the risk of coming across as bug obsessed, here's posting another such entry -- this time with photos of bugs my regular hiking companion and I set eyes upon for the first time ever on our traipses through and in the Hong Kong countryside last Sunday.

We encountered the first bug -- an insect which I first spotted after it leaped like a cricket onto the path we were on -- early on in our hike. A shy thing, it proceeded to play hide and seek with us as it tried to elude our attempts to capture its image with our cameras before apparently going off and summoning a whole bunch of its friends -- because even though it was the first bug of its kind that we had ever seen, in the next hour or so, we ended up catching sight of many other examples of this species (a few of which we also witnessed flying short distances -- or maybe their jumps are so high and long that they it makes them look like they're flying when they're actually not!).

Not long after our first "new" bug species encounter of the day, my regular hiking companion and I came across a furry looking creepy crawly literally hanging from a thread in the middle of the same path and blowing in the wind. Although we devoted some time to trying to take good photos of that particular bug, none turned out to be all that great due to it being on the small side and moving about too much for our cameras' comfort.

As luck would have it, after giving up on that shutter bug attempt, we would come across two more examples of the same species that were easier to photograph: one because it was dead and thus still; and the other (the bug in the second photo above) because it was larger in size than the other two of its species we saw that day and actually stayed so still for a time that we wondered if it too were dead, only for it to move away and hide a minute or so later after it had stayed put long enough for us to take majorly close-up shots of it!

So... can anyone ID either or both of the bugs in the photo? If so, please do so on the comments thread of this entry -- and you'll earn the gratitude of my regular hiking companion and I who are truly curious as to what we saw (as well as puzzled as to how come in all our years of hiking, last Sunday was the first time we encountered -- or at least noticed -- these creepy crawlies!).

More than by the way, for those who didn't know already, if you click on this blog's photos, you'll get to see enlarged versions of the images. So feel free to do so and enjoy?! :b

13 comments:

sarah bailey knight said...

hi ytsl,

Hehehe...I don't think these are really bugs but Hong Kong celebrities taking a "rest" in another form before heading "onward and upward".

The first picture may be Heavenly King Aaron Kwok Fu-Shing thinking about his next concert and the second is perhaps Peter Chan Ho-Sun preparing for his next diatribe.

baroness radon said...

I have never seen stranger bugs and spiders than in HK and China.

Pip the Troll said...

i think the top one is a tiger beetle.

YTSL said...

Hi sbk --

Have to admit that I did a double take upon first reading your comments, then realized: you think of Aaron Kwok with regards to "tiny" and Peter Chan as furry/hairy, right? ;b

Hi baroness radon --

So it's not just me then? *Phew* and good! :D

Hi Phil --

Thanks for the ID. Have you encountered this beetle yourself on your traipses around Hong Kong? :)

Daniel Thomas said...

Ooh, ooh, can I play?

I'm afraid I'm no help at all in identifying your creepy crawlies, but I too have mystery bugs which are, as yet, unidentified.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z220/dandan76/Misc/IMG_3116.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z220/dandan76/Misc/IMG_3118.jpg

These are two examples of the same bug, taken with a macro lens on the path, halfway up to the 'Temple of 10000 Tacky, Fibreglass Buddhas' (Sha Tin).

As far as I can tell, the cotton wool appendages do nothing except collect tiny droplets of water. Underneath their pinkish exterior, they have legs which are akin to those of a woodlouse.

Answers on a postcard, please...

sarah bailey knight said...

hi again ytsl,

Actually for Aaron Kwok I was thinking about some of his colorful outfits.

YTSL said...

Hi again Daniel --

Checked out your bug photos -- and OMG. Is that really alive???!!! Looks like some embroidered, multi-thread ornament that could have come out of a women's dress! :DDD

Hi again sbk --

Hehehehe -- not colorful enough, I think... the bug, I mean! :D

sarah bailey knight said...

hi again ytsl,

hehehehe....I agree....

YTSL said...

Hi once more sbk --

Nonetheless, that bug will now be inextricably linked to Aaron in my mind because of you! :D

Maya said...

Hi YTSL,
I love to know that I am not the only one out there that runs around taking pictures of bugs--I drive my husband crazy. I can't wait to see what we come across when hiking in Hong Kong :)

YTSL said...

Hi Maya --

I'm fortunate in that my regular hiking companion loves taking photos of bugs too! So it's not a question of one driving the other crazy but both of us indulging in a mutual craze. :D

A. @ A changing Life said...

Sadly, I'm really not a bug lover. I hate to admit it, but I keep a very safe distance away from any. I'll stick to your great hiking photo essays and pretend I don't see any bugs.

YTSL said...

Hi A. --

On hazy days, bugs help make hikes visually interesting. But have to admit that even on clear days, I do find my attention getting grabbed by a bug or more. Find them fascinating. Snakes, OTOH... some others may find them fascinating but they definitely scare me!