Memoirs of a Light Trapper - Miniature Monsters pt. 2

Hey ya'll 

It's been quite a while since my last update and the reason for that is that I have been quite busy with sorting out the logistics of my field study at Gopeng Hill, Malaysia. The field study, which will commence next year, is part of the research requirement for my dissertation as a Doctor of Philosophy candidate and will consist of an 8 month stay with the Semai Orang Asli in smaller periods of 2 months at a time in 2014. There, I hope to be able to witness the initiative and participation of the Semai in conservation of biodiversity through their involvement in ecotourism. But more on that later. For now I would like to upload the rest of the pictures from our light trapping expedition last month. Our photographer, Miss Joanne Tong has had her hands full with work from her other expeditions and I am very grateful to her for having been able to assist us in documenting some of the magnificent finds from our trip. Photographing insects proved to be something of a challenge to her, as she had never before participated in a light trapping experiment of this scale but to see her sitting out doors in front of our light traps, a jumble of beetles, moths, and cicadas fluttering about her hair was to see the mark of a photographer, dedicated to capturing the perfect image of her subjects! And boy did these images turn out wonderfully. She even remarked, jokingly, that up close many of the insects she photographed reminded her of of very tiny (albeit cuter versions of) monsters. 

 

I haven't really had the time to go about identifying each and every one of them, but I have posted the photographs on facebook where they may be identified by some more experienced lepidopterist friends of mine and you can bet that I will be back to update on this post as and when the species and genera come to me! In the meantime, I hope everyone has had an eventful and fruitful year thus far! Just a few more days before June comes along and we'd be halfway into 2013!!! Isn't it funny how fast time flies? And on that note, I shall leave you with a picture of my trap setup and the little insects that were attracted to it.

 

Cheers,
Cyren

Buggy updates from Instagram

Hey ya'll

so I'm not sure if you guys know this, but I'm on instagram too! I upload a lot of the creepy crawly pictures I take there on a regular basis and Instagram may be one of the reasons why I have not been updating here as frequently as I should have! I mean, it's so much easier to just snap the photo and put it up for the online community to view without having to write an entire paragraph to go with it. Doesn't mean I will stop blogging though but, you know, if you have instagram do follow me at Cyrenization. I update my pictures there fairly regularly so, yeah! Also if you've got an instagram album with things you feel I might be interested in, do drop me a shout so I can send a "follow" back in your direction.

Speaking of Instagram, I uploaded pictures of my moth collection there yesterday, after I was done with the corresponding blog post, and when I checked back this morning I noticed that a fellow instagrammer had sketched what I suspect are my two specimens.  Check it out: 

Isn't that amazing?! Anyway his user name on Instagram is jordynebird_art and he's got some pretty amazing sketches as well so if you're into that kind of thing do drop by his account to "like" some pics, or send him a "follow". 

Cheers,
Cyren.