Spidey & beetle sampling at Ubin

Life-post FB (FYI i deactivated my FB account!): i have no where to share my photos in excitement but here! :p First trip to Ubin with the boy as his PFA (personal field assistant) was not so fruitful, but at least we got some stuff and manage to get some exercise! :p
The boy on his way to Ubin:
Pretty cicada (i thought it was a moth!):
Isn't he a cutie! Looks like he's got a face mask on ;)

What a shiny crisp red shell! I've always liked lady beetles as a kid, but always thought they all had black spots!

Can you spot the spider? ;)

Oh furry one~

Clutch of spider eggs! They're a pretty green just like their mum!
Can you guess what this is?? It's a scale bug! Apparently the bug excretes excess sugars to form those spikes. So cool huh!
And a teeny tiny spider with its really pretty stabilimentum :)

Amazing wonders of Mother Nature! :)

Came across some awesome stuff on the National Geographic website's news that I'd like to share, cuz they really took my breath away! =) Some of you must have already seen it, cuz it's been going around for a while.

First up is this giant freshwater stingray (Himantura chaophraya), which was found during a National Geographic expedition in Thailand. These stingray however, were first discovered by scientists in 1989 (probably much earlier by local fishermen). The one in this picture here was estimated to weigh 250-450kg!! Check out the previous article about their finding in Cambodia too-the mummy giant stingray just gave birth to a baby!

Next up is this deep sea Pacific barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma), which has a transparent head, not unlike that of a helicopter cockpit! Isn't this cool!
For a closer look at the fish: Note the 2 beady-like parts that look like the eyes, but are not! The eyes are actually safely protected behind the transparent "shield"-look at the greyish barrel like structures topped with the green orbital lens, those are the eyes! They are really cool creatures cuz these eyes are really sensitive, probably a requirement because they live at depths of 600m, where light is really scarce. The green lens are thought to function to filter out the green bioluminescence from their prey.
Unbelieveable? Well I thought so too, initially when my friend first showed it to me. But after seeing a post on it on my other friend's blog, it finally piqued my curiosity enough to check it out on the National Geographic webbie. The video clip gives quite a good view of the fish in action. Check it out! :)

If you still have time to spare, explore the website! http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ There are so many cool stuff :) Or if you don't have time, search for the sargassum fish and watch the video. It's pretty cool too, how this fish camouflages perfectly to help itself hunt prey. Plus it has a transparent body, and you can watch how the prey actually goes into the sargassum fish, and ultimately .. dies... But that's nature ;p