Up Close with Nature

Maliau Basin trip report, Part II. You can find Part I here. Violin beetle Jewel beetle, Catoxantha opulenta Dead leaf mantis, Deroplatys truncata Fishfly -  Neochauliodes borneensis (van der Weele, 1909), belonging to the subfamily Chauliodinae of family Corydalidae. Male adults. Mating pair of green lantern bugs, Pyrops shiinaorum shiinaorum Green lantern bug, Pyrops shiinaorum

Maliau Basin or also Maliau Basin Conservation Area, is a region in Sabah, Malaysia, which represents a geological catchment surrounding the Maliau River. Located around the center of Sabah in the Sandakan Division, it was designated as a conservation area by the Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah) in 1981. Later in 1997 the Sabah State Assembly gazetted the Basin as a Protection Forest Reserve (

Sharing more wonderful fauna of Langkawi. There is more to Langkawi than cheap booze. There are nice, clean beaches, rainforest, mangrove and geopark to boost. There are about  246 species of birds and 340 species of butterflies  in Langkawi. It is also the only place in Malaysia where you can find the brown winged kingfisher. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, you can find these amazing

More wonderful arthropods from Danum Valley. If you missed the first part and the introduction to Danum Valley, plus all the big and lovely wildlife like sambar deer, Orang Utan, you can check it out here. Except for the lantern bugs and mantis images, all were shot with a 40D, MPE65 and MT24EX with DIY concave diffuser. The amazing lantern bug Pyrops whiteheadi from Danum Valley. Surely one of

Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 438 square kilometres tract of relatively undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia. The area holds unique status in the sense that before it became a conservation area there were no human settlements within the area, meaning that hunting, logging and other human interference was non existent making the area almost unique. It is managed by

Endau Rompin National Park (2°26′20″N 103°16′22″E / 2.438915°N 103.272858°E / 2.438915; 103.272858 (Endau Rompin National Park)) is a protected tropical rainforest in Malaysia. It is an area south of the state of Pahang and to the northeast of Johor covering an approximate area of 870 km², effectively making it is the second largest national park in Peninsular Malaysia after Taman Negara,