I was hoping to finish my series of Borneo blog posts from my March-April 2016 trip by the end of the year but Christmas is virtually there and I reckon I still have at least a dozen articles to write and illustrate, so it's time to resume my blog activity. After all, that trip is nearly two years old and I will have soon to focuse on some new destinations (more about them later). ;-)
Here is a last post on my stay in the exciting Mulu National park on April 2016. Mulu NP is definitely a destination I would recommend to anyone who would like to visit Borneo, expecially, if like me, you have a strong interest for entomology and herping.
After our first day in the park, I suggested our guests (I was co-leading a botanical tour with Dr. Alastair Robinson) to have a nightwalk in order to observe some interesting creatures. I remembered dearly how well I enjoyed that kind of activity when I first visited the place some years before.
With a little group, we walked in one of the trails near our accomodations and would observe some exciting stuff. Although, the following pictures might show animals that might be boring for the tropical pedestrian, for people living in Northernly latitudes like us- bar Doc Robinson- this stroll would turned out to be a quite thrilling mini-adventure. ;-)
As you will soon notice, I don't know the names of most of the animals shown below, so please do drop me a line if you wish to enlighten me.
Spiders were legions on that night and the most intriguing was certainly this cryptic green species:
I was very interested in other spiders as well and I wish I had more time to observe them. A shame also that my arachnid knowledge is so limited. I have bought some books just after that trip and I shall be more prepared next time. :-)
We found a handful of caterpillars here and there, a generally common sight during night walks. This one below looks familiar to me but I am not confident enough to identy it (could this, maybe, belong to a Papilionidae from the genus Papilio?).
Some other insects were less obvious to spot. For instance, I nearly missed this cute beetle (Scarabeidae family) that was busy chewing on a crunchy leaf. ;-)
Next is a lovely grasshopper (Caelifera sub-order) with wings mimicking brown leaves. This type of Orthopteran is not to be confused however with what enthusiasts usually refer to as 'Katydids'.
I was wondering if we would find some Cyrtodactylus, a genus of gecko I usually meet on almost each of my nightwalks in Borneo. This little fella is a kind of old time favorite and, indeed, I would eventually spot a couple of specimens this time as well. I don't know which species we are dealing with here though. Any idea ?
Is a next one a different Cyrtodactylus? Or is it an individual at a different stage of developement or from a different sex? Argh... I have so much to learn: I feel so uncomfortable in areas of expertise I am not familiar with.
Strangely, we didn't find many frogs on that particular night walk while this was the case on my previous walks there. Maybe this had something to do maybe with the relatively dry weather we experienced then: the El Nino event effects had been sadly particularly strong last year. I managed nevertheless to get a decent shot of this shy individual. Again, I have no clue what it is exactly.
What we did observe in large numbers were a large selection of stick insects. Some of my friends, who keep many of these at home as 'pets', would have absolutely looooved to be there with me. I think I am quite familiar with some of the species below but have no time right now to provide a specific identification and, on top of that, my Phasmidae literature here is frankly limited but some are the following stick-insects belong, without a doubt, to the Heteropterygidae family (I'm refering to the robust ones).
Could the following one be Haaniella scabra? You tell me.
I hope you enjoyed this little nice walk.^^ I will keep on posting more stuff from Borneo very soon. Next article will see me back in the more familiar botany ground as I will show you an exceptional Vanda Orchid garden. ;-)
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