Lightning strikes close to HDB block causing tree to fall

Lightning struck close to a HDB block in Compassvale Street causing a tree to fall.

It also resulted in a temporary loss of sound in STOMPer nobody's TV set.

The STOMPer said the lightning was accompanied by the loudest thunder ever heard.

Nobody says:

"The extraordinary lightning yesterday had caused one of the trees at Compassvale Street to fall.

"I can't imagine if the lightning had struck a human instead.

"The lightning also caused the TV set to lose sound for a couple of minutes."

Sick and dying trees at Jurong Park Connector must be saved

Many of the trees that line the pathway at Jurong Park Connector have been stricken with disease and are in danger of dying out, says STOMPer Rambler, who is worried about the state of the park.

These trees are important to park users as they provide shade for those walking or jogging along, he says.

In an email, Rambler says:

"Last week I went for a ramble at the Jurong Park Connector, which begins at the Jurong Town Hall Rd and ending at Yuan Ching Rd.

"To my surprise, I noticed that the trees look unhealthy and stunted.

"I went nearer to take a closer look and found that the leaves had yellow and black "bubbles" on the surface.

"The leaves must have been infected by some disease which I hope the arborists in NParks could enlighten me about.

"NParks officials could do something to save these trees as they provide shade for joggers and ramblers who love the fresh air at Jurong Lake."

Related post: Please save the dying trees at Jurong Park Connector (9th March 2009)

These appear to be galls formed by some sort of insect. Whether or not these are serious enough to pose any threat to the survival of the trees, I cannot say.

Palm tree flowers attract bees and pose danger to passers-by

The flowers on this palm tree attract bees which pose a danger to passers-by walking to the bus stop nearby.

STOMPer apiphobic, who was stung by a bee, says:

"These pictures were taken near the bus stop beside Blk 288D at Bt Batok East Ave 6.

"As I was walking to the bus stop I felt a sharp piercing pain on my neck.

"When I rubbed my neck, I found a struggling bee.

"This palm tree near the bus stop bears flowers twice a year and during the flowering season, swarms of bees are attracted to the flowers.

"I hope the Town Council will not plant such trees in housing estates as they attract bees.

"Now, I have to take another route to reach the bus stop."

Oh right, so in that case, let's eliminate all flowering plants from our neighbourhoods.

I can accept the fact that most people may not be comfortable living in close proximity to stinging insects such as bees and wasps, especially if one is allergic to stings. However, calling for the palm trees to be cleared just because a single bee stung you is frankly preposterous.

Oh wait, is it the work of this person yet again?



Right. So far, he's self-diagnosed as being nyctophobic (afraid of the dark), ophidiophobic (afraid of snakes), arachnophobic (afraid of spiders), scoleciphobic (afraid of worms), and now he says he has a phobia of bees.

I know that there's a possibility that these are not all posted by the same person, but if you look at all these submissions, you will probably notice that all these posts have the same writing style.

Instead of kicking up such a big fuss because of his many irrational phobias, I think what this person needs is psychiatric help.

Monday Morgue: 12th April 2010

Unidentified beetle (Coleoptera)
Venus Drive, 27th November 2009

Mysterious leaf insect camouflages itself on plant

This mysterious leaf insect is able to camouflage itself with a Dillenia leaf found on Jurong Road, says STOMPer Arborist, who wonders what the insect's scientific name is.

Arborist was in awe when he spotted the insect rocking back on forth, disguising itself as a leaf blowing in the wind.

In an email, the sender says:

"I was walking along Jurong Road when I spotted this green leaf insect resting on a Dillenia leaf.

"The colour of the insect and that of the leaf was so similar that it was perfectly camouflaged.

"The mimicry was so good that even a predator would be fooled. The insect had a pair of long antennae, a green body and legs coloured green, brown and yellow at the end.

"The eyes were small and circular.

"When the insect was moving, it rocked back and forth , resembling a real leaf blown by the wind.

"When it jumped onto the road it turned dark green in colour.

"Could some entomologist tell me the name of this mysterious insect?"

It's some sort of orthopteran; to be more specific, it's quite likely to be a species of katydid or bush-cricket (F. Tettigoniidae), although I can't narrow it down much further than that.

James encountered this species (or at least something very similar to it) in a visit to Dairy Farm Road last November.




Marcus also found something similar at the Tree Top Walk last September.





Many species of katydid are extremely well-camouflaged, bearing a very close resemblance to leaves. Most of the time, I notice the presence of these insects only when they move.



(Photos by James)

Here are 2 different species of katydid James and I found in a patch of secondary vegetation in Tampines. Can you find them?

'Leaf insect' is a misnomer, as it refers specifically to insects belonging to the family Phylliidae, which are found in tropical forests from Southeast Asia to Australia. Various species of the genus Phyllium may be encountered in the region.


(Photo by crazysw)


(Photo by myrm)


(Photo by mantidboy)

The camouflage is exceptional.

Leaf insects are not commonly encountered in Singapore, although it seems that there are records from time to time.



Such as this individual spotted by Ria in Pasir Ris in 2003.




Marcus found this nymph of Phyllium siccifolium at Sungei Buloh in September 2007.

There is also a leaf insect photographed in Sime Forest in 2003 by Paul Huang.

Leaf insects belong to the Phasmida (also known as the Phasmatodea), which are known generally as stick insects. Like the leaf insects, stick insects are masters of camouflage.


Venus Drive;


Pulau Ubin;

Here is a selection of stick insects photographed by various people in Singapore:


Pulau Ubin;
(Photo by Marcus)


Lower Peirce;
(Photo by James)


Bukit Timah;
(Photo by Shawn14595)


Lower Peirce;
(Photo by Jacqueline)

Grasshoppers and stick insects are somewhat closely related to one another; for one thing, both groups undergo incomplete metamorphosis, and members of both groups possess chewing mandibles. All stick insects are vegetarians, feeding on leaves, much like many orthopterans (there are some omnivorous or even predatory species of cricket and grasshopper).

There is another closely related group of insects famous for being masters of camouflage, but with a much more predatory slant - the mantids (Mantodea).


Tropidomantis tenera
(Photo by James)

Dangerous bee hive near bus stop

A bee-hive was spotted by STOMPer bee victim near a bus stop at Mandai. The STOMPer hopes NEA will send its workers to destroy it.

The STOMPer said in an email:

"These pictures were taken near a bus stop (B 17) at Mandai Road and close to a street lamp numbered 161.

"As I was waiting at the bus stop, I spotted this huge bee-hive on a tall tree near behind the bus stop.

"From a distance, I saw a swarm of insects hovering near the hive but I was unable to make out whether they were bees or hornets.

"When the bus came, I quickly jumped onto it for fear that a stray bee might decide to use me to test the efficacy of its sting.

"I hope NEA will send its workers to destroy this hive in case it turns out to be a hornets' nest."

While I understand the need to protect ourselves against the threat posed by bees and hornets, I wonder if there really is a need to destroy every colony unfortunate enough to be encountered by us.

How did bird lose its head?

STOMPer Vincher was shocked when she came across the carcass of this headless bird in a Clementi carpark.

"Was it murdered by a cat?" she wondered.

"I found this poor headless birdie in front of block 702 Clementi at carpark c35 in lot 604.

"I really felt sorry for the bird. I spotted it at 8:30am today (Apr 8)."

There's a couple of possibilities:

The first possibility is that this feral pigeon (Columba livia) was killed by a cat, which bit off the head. However, the lack of any signs of a struggle, such as blood and loose feathers scattered everywhere, make this quite an unlikely explanation.

The second more plausible option is that the head is merely tucked beneath the bird's body, such that it is obscured from view.

Beneath all their feathers, birds actually have long necks that are capable of some degree of flexibility. You would be surprised at how thin the necks of some birds actually are, beneath all the feathers.


(Photo by Flint-Hill)
Naked neck, a breed of domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) that lacks feathers on its neck;

Even pigeons, which appear to have short stumpy necks, have surprisingly slender necks. This is easily seen in the Romanian naked neck tumbler, a fancy pigeon breed that lacks feathers on the neck.


Romanian naked neck tumbler;
(Photo by jim.gifford)


Pigeon skeleton;
(Photo by Ryan Somma)

It is this flexibility that enables the bird to tuck its head away while sleeping or resting, and appear headless. I would suppose that in the case of this pigeon, moving the carcass would reveal the head.

It is interesting to note that such flexibility is also seen in non-avian dinosaurs, especially in theropods, which birds are descended from. Quite a few skeletons of dinosaurs are recovered with the head thrown back over the shoulders, in a death pose that is seen in many specimens.


Gorgosaurus libratus, Royal Tyrell Museum;
(Photo by Royal Tyrrell Museum)


Struthiomimus altus, American Museum of Natural History;
(Photo by Nilesh Karia)


Compsognathus longipes, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences;
(Photo by tina_manthorpe)


Archaeopteryx lithographica, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin;
(Photo by Hornplayer)

It was originally hypothesised in 1918 by Roy Moodie that these dinosaurs had died as a result of poisoning or disease, although it was eventually rejected by others in favour of theories that such poses were the result of water currents, or the shrinking and dessication of ligaments and tendons as the carcass decayed, pulling the neck back.

However, in 2007, Cynthia Faux and Kevin Padian published a paper claiming that such explanations were wrong, and that this pose was more likely to be caused by brain damage. Experiments showed that rigor mortis or shrinking of ligaments during decomposition failed to account for such poses. Instead, this pose, known as opisthotonus, is associated with damage to the cerebellum, which can occur as a result of suffocation, disease, brain trauma, or poisoning. Hence, instead of having taken place through postmortem processes, the opisthotonic posture indicates that violent death throes had taken place at the moment of death.

GrrlScientist of Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) and Bora Zivkovic of Coturnix have provided excellent summaries of this paper. While Brian Switek of Laelaps reminds us why this is not necessarily an open-and-shut case.

If such a posture is indeed suggestive of poisoning, it does raise a few questions as to how this particular pigeon died. Was it killed by poisoning? There has been quite a bit of a ruckus in recent months over the culling of pigeons; pigeons are culled with the use of poisons, which does raise quite a number of issues. I'm particularly concerned about the possibility of collateral damage when non-targeted species feed on poisoned baits, and the fact that culling is ineffective when not carried out in tandem with other control measures, such as reducing the availability of food for the pigeons in the first place.

Problems with urban birds are essentially human problems. In most cases, the most effective long-term solution involves changing human behaviour. Whether it is stopping people from feeding pigeons, enforcing proper food waste disposal, or prompt clearing up of leftovers at food outlets, such measures can go a long way towards preventing pigeon numbers from exploding. Culling is only treating the problem, not the source.

Fangqi has taken up this issue, and now compiles all relevant articles and letters on pigeons on the Save The Pigeons blog.