Friday, August 27, 2010

Update # 7




1 - First, a species change of name :


Eubulides igorrote is now >>>>>>> Eubulides alutaceus


igorrote beeing only a synonym of the initial description


Thanks Joachim.


2 - A couple of pics of my first just hatched Lonchodiodes sp "Bicol"


Nice and cute with her red legs, black head and white antenna tips :)


MNESILOCHUS SP "Pocdol"

Pocdol Mountains > Sorsogon > Bicol Province > South-East Luzon

Another Mnesilochus species, my 6th I think :), large, female colored from grey to almost black with nice orange/white spotted legs. This one pretty close to the one from QNP. Like all species from this genus they feed here in Manila on African Tulip tree













Friday, August 13, 2010

LONCHODES DALAWANGSUNGAY

Marinfanta Road Km95 > Quezon Province > East Luzon
Beautiful and uncommon species, very interesting because the male and eggs style look very much like a Periphetes and the female much like an Eucarcharus.........Males are nicely colored with a bright orange body and green abdomen while legs are of a dark blue/green color very striking. High altitude species I found at about 750 to 950masl + raining season which means cool temperatures at arround 20C at night and very often raining / foggy conditions. Here in Manila the species accepted to feed on Rose only (just like Periphetes quezonicus) and is doing well. Most probably the genus Lonchodes isn't the right one for that species and further studies will surely prove it thus a genus change will very certainly occur in the near future.













































LONCHODIODES SP "pocdol"

Pocdol Mountains > Sorsogon Province > Bicol > South Luzon
The first species I'm having from that area of Luzon situated at the extreme South-East of the Island about 600km away from Manila
Nice large species in both sexes, male somewhat colorful with a nice orange body and leg joints. Here in Manila the species accepted African tulip tree and Guanabano (tagalog) as foodplants. Breeding is easy and species in long living.




































Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Pictures of Sites #12

Marinfanta Road Km95 > Sierra Madre > Quezon Province > East Luzon

This is a road that connects Marikina city (North Metro Manila - West Luzon) to Infanta (East Luzon), about 130km long it connects west to East through the Sierra Madre mountains. Its a project that started about 40 years ago under the rule of then president Ferdinand Marcos, all the way to today. It is approximately 80% completed, only a couple of dozen kilometers remain to be cemented near Infanta, however even not cemented road is drivable, just more tricky during raining season.

For us Stick collectors this road is a blessing, due to its location : the Sierra Madre mountains. About 60km are passing directly through the mountain chain, altitudes varies from 400masl to 850masl. Before completion of that road this whole area remained very unaccessible, it is now offering to us countless new trails, waterfalls and other pics to explore, such an exciting place to be. Actually our first stop on that road was Mount Daraitan at Km69, I featured already in a previous post. This time we pushed further till Km 95 were we stopped at about 750masl already with the car. Taking a side trail going up the rest of the mountain about 200meters up to 900masl. We discovered there on top of the mountain the "back side" of the road > the huge Sierra Madre area, so many pics to go....... First trip there, we were caught into an incoming typhoon, we could stay on site only about 90mns under buckets of water thrown to us by the typhoon, we decided then, soaked wet and full of mud, to abort collecting and go back to the car and Manila....... Marinfanta Km95 you will see us again there pretty soon, promised :))