UNKNOWN TARANTULA

Almost one month from my last beetles trip collection, at February 23, 2014, I accidentally found Tarantula which is new to me, then I took it home with me and hoping someone could Identified it.The tarantula came from West Kalimantan, INDONESIA, at Sambas district area.

Based on my experiences, this is my first time after so many years on field trip collecting insects.

 Then I emailed my friend who is an expert about tarantula, and he said probably it's an Ornithoctoninae species.Maybe it's a Haplopelma.Then I told him this one is terrestrial, that was another info which could changes his perspectives, maybe it's a haplopelma doriae or maybe it's a new genus.

Maybe someone out there could identified it for me, any help appreciated.Here's some of the pictures.

biggest female

whole capture

Unknown Beetles

Here's another unknown beetles from West Kalimantan Island, it's Dynastid, not really so sure about it, after searching on the internet, I think it's similar to Dipelicus sp.


If you might know this specimen, please email me with the detail, any help really appreciated, thank you.

My Mantis

While collecting beetles at white sheet, these two creature came to me, at first, this little white and beautiful that seems like walking flower to me at first sight, yes, it's Hymenopus Coronatus.


I think it's a newborn, because from it size, it's quite small for mantis.Here's another picture of how it camouflage.

Well, for the second mantis, it's Parablepharis Kuhlii, at first sight, I thought that it just a dried leaf who stuck on the sheet, then when I try to remove it, it's attacked me, I'm surprised, then I'm pull out my flash light from my pouch, try to know what exactly this thing, then I can see it 's head, well, definitely it's a mantis too.

This is my first time seeing this species, I didn't know it name, then I'm emailed my friend from Ireland who loves mantis, he told me it name, well, here you goes.Check the pictures for yourself.


And here's from the back.


See, how gorgeous their both, to me it's wonderful.

Unknown Species

Here's an another unknown species, need identifications from anyone.I couldn't find the correct answer, but in my guess, maybe it's from Carabidae.

Here's the pictures:

Here's too:

I hope someone out there could help me describing this insect!!

My Trophy, The Allotopus Moellenkampi Fruhstorferi

Finally, after a very long-long time, my dream comes true, I have a pair of Allotopus Moellenkampi Fruhstorferi, and the most impressive is, the size is big.I never imagined that this beetles, as one of my target for so long, already in my collections.


And the most interesting is, I caught this Allotopus in off season, there's no any other beetles available, just some common beetles that I didn't interested.


Finally, the moment of glory has come.


The females size is 45 mm, and the male is 42 mm, I don't know why the female is bigger than the male, or maybe there is still a bigger male out there in the mountain.At least I have the specimen for future expeditions.


Well, that's all for now, starting February, I'll move again on top of the mountain for bigger male of Allotopus Moellenkampi Fruhstorferi.

Cetoniidae identifications needed!!!

At my last trips on collecting beetles at MT Bawang, I also caught this Cetoniidae beetles, without any information about it. This trips actually looking for Allotopus Moeelenkampi Fruhstorferi, but I have no luck.The weather on top of the mountain always changed, it's makes the jobs difficult.


Withaout any hesitations, I caught any beetles that were available, well at least I can study it further more.Here's the pictures of Cetoniidae that I had;


For your information, this beetles only available at top of this mountain, because on the summit, the flower available, and to find it, they all flies in the morning and evening.


Well, anyone out there maybe know and can classified this beetles for me, because when I search it on google, I'm not so sure about it.

Cyclommathus Tarandus Season

Cyclommathus tarandus, a lucanidae. It is one of an exotic insect, and only available in the Sambas district, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Lives on the plains between 0 - 150 m above sea level, and breeds 4 times a year.

For the season itself, based on my experience, only 6-8 times a year, including the mating seasons, and usually they came out from their nest on the rain season only.

Right now the weather changed, it's rainy season, and guess what, it's hunting time!!

To catch this beetles, is quite different from the others, because this beetles always came out in the early morning, around 06.00 AM, and return to their nest at 11.00 AM.
Based on my experiences in collecting stag beetles, this one is the only beetles that capable flying out in the day.

They flies and search for this special bushes, and in local we call it Cengkodok trees.As you can see on the picture below, if you watched it carefully, there's a mandible hiding under the Cengkodok leaf.
Can you spot it ?!!


They feed on the nectar from Cengkodok flower, and usually the flowers itself  blooming 8 times a year, that's is why the seasons comes (I think !!).
This Cengkodok trees is a native trees and can be found only around South East Asia, and the habitat is around the river bank and a great plains.

To catch this stag beetles, I uses a net, and to find where's the beetles colony hiding , sometimes I use my own methods,
first; find a bushes that has no farmers activity, because when there's farmers, sometimes they used insecticide to kill insects, and guess what, absolutely there will be no more Cyclommathus Tarandus living there.

And the second method, I like to use a river path, the reason is, I don't have to spend much times on searching the beetles when they fall into the bushes.When they fell on the river, it's so easy to caught it, because they can't swim!!!!ha,ha,ha,ha...(They should learned how to swim....)


The most difficult task in catching this Tarandus is to find where is the colony, sometimes it's takes a day, even a week, but the most impossible thing for me until now is to find their nest. I don't know what,where and how, until now I can't find it.

The season itself only takes a couple of weeks, sometimes 3 weeks or a month.After that, I need to wait until the other seasons.Sometimes in 1 season, I can't catch even a single beetle.

To unable catch some nice and big Tarandus, I need to wait for the mating season, because in this times, the superb and beautiful males is out for mating.I hope this is the times, because I don't have any idea when they will come.

The biggest Cyclommathus Tarandus that I ever had is 70 mm, and that's extremely rare, only 1 in a million, 8 years ago.But, to catch that size again, I don't think so, it's like almost impossible for this times,this current situation where everywhere in Kalimantan, so many forest destroyed by the palm plantations.

The largest that I ever caught since that day is only 69 mm, about 2 years ago.For the Record, the largest Cyclomatus Tarandus in record is 74mm, from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia in 1902.And second largest is 72mm,1904 from Sarawak,Malaysia.This info I get from my Australian friend, Stephen Hey, he really loves Cyclommatus.
I hope for this season, I can find those giant male of Cyclommathus Tarandus again.

mating

Feeding the nectar

Male and femaleFighting for their territory